Two near-simultaneous bombings targeting a Shia religious procession tent south of the Iraqi capital have killed at least eight people and wounded dozens, on Thursday.

CEOAFRICA gathered that the Thursday's violence near Baghdad came during the peak of Ashoura commemoration rituals that mark the death of a key figure in Shia Islam, when Sunni Muslim armed groups typically step up attacks on Iraq's majority community, whom they regard as apostates.

Worshippers were gathering inside a tent where Shias were performing rituals to commemorate the death of Imam al-Hussein.

Al-Hussein, a grandson of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, was killed by the armies of the caliph Yazid in 680 AD and his death in Karbala has come to symbolise the split between Sunni and Shia Muslims.