A series of bomb blasts has ripped through a Baghdad neighborhood, killing at least 17 people.

An official with Iraq's Interior Ministry says the explosions rocked a market in a Shi'ite section of southwestern Baghdad late Thursday.

Officials say at least another 34 people were wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Iraq has been hit by a series of bombings and shootings this week.

On Wednesday, gunmen in Baghdad opened fire on a convoy carrying Iranian oil officials, wounding two Iraqi guards who were protecting them.

In another attack Wednesday, a car bomb exploded in western Baghdad, killing a passer-by and wounding at least nine other people. Four additional bomb attacks, some targeting Iraqi police patrols, wounded at least 18 people.

Two car bombs blasts in the southern city of Diwaniyah killed 25 people Tuesday. On Monday, a roadside bomb wounded seven people near a French embassy convoy in Baghdad.

Violence in Iraq has been reduced sharply from its peak in 2006 and 2007. But, recent attacks against government officials and security forces has raised concerns that violence may increase as the United States prepares to withdraw its forces from Iraq at the end of the year.