Baghdad , Iraq ( CNN ) -- At least five people were killed and 39 wounded when a car bomb exploded Monday in Basra , an Interior Ministry official said , capping a day in which at least 11 people were killed in blasts in cities with Shiite shrines . In Baghdad , two mortars or rockets struck the International Zone shortly before 8 p.m. , though there were no reports of casualties . Car bombings targeting religious pilgrims in two major Shiite cities in Iraq killed 11 people Monday , an Interior Ministry official said . On a crowded street in the Iraqi city of Karbala a blast killed at least 10 people and wounded 38 others , the official said . The bomb went off at one of the main entrances to the city where buses carrying Iranian pilgrims stop , the official said . In Najaf , at least one person was killed and 10 others wounded in a bombing , the official said . The parked car bomb targeted buses carrying Iranian pilgrims at the road leading to Najaf 's old city . Najaf and Karbala , south of Baghdad , have seen increases in foreign pilgrims in the last two years after a drop in the daily widespread violence . Iran 's Fars News Agency said that on any given day , about 1,500 pilgrims travel from neighboring Iran to visit Shiite shrines in Iraq , particularly in Najaf and Karbala . Elsewhere Monday , a roadside bomb detonated outside a busy restaurant in central Baghdad 's Karrada district , wounding four people . The official said the bomb targeted a police patrol . Two of the wounded were police officers ; the other two were civilians . Earlier Monday , a mortar round struck the International Zone , popularly known as the Green Zone , but did not cause damages or casualties . A day earlier , at least two rockets struck the area and on Saturday , three others struck the zone . The zone is a heavily fortified central Baghdad district housing the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government offices .
NEW : Car bomb kills 5 in Basra . Blasts occur in Shiite areas of Baghdad and Najaf . Many of the victims are Iranian pilgrims , an official said . And in Baghdad , a bomb wounds 10 people .