Four car bombs targeting Shi'ites in Baghdad and a town south of the capital killed more than 70 people yesterday, hours after Saddam Hussein was hanged amid fears of revenge by his Sunni Arab supporters.

In Baghdad, three car bombs exploded in quick succession in the mainly Shi'ite neighbourhood of Hurriya, killing 36 people and wounding 77, an Interior Ministry source said.

Police in Kufa, near the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, said 36 people were killed and 58 wounded by the car bomb at a market packed with shoppers ahead of the week-long Eid al-Adha holiday.

They said a mob killed a man they accused of planting the bomb in the town about 160 km south of Baghdad.

While the attacks may have been a swift response to the execution, such bombings are common in a country where at least 100 people die on average every day in bombings, mortar attacks and death squad killings.

A formerly mixed neighbourhood, Hurriya, where the three car bombs struck yesterday, has become increasingly dominated by Shi'ites as Sunni Arabs have been driven out by threats and attacks.

Saddam's execution was welcome by Shi'ites and Kurds, who were oppressed under his rule, but many in the once dominant Sunni Arab minority were angry and all sides feared it could spark even more violence.