The explosions in the Ghazaliyah neighbourhood included two magnetic "sticky bombs" attached to the doors of two separate houses, and two other bombs planted in the gardens of another two houses. A fifth blast occurred as a result of a roadside bomb.
"The explosions took place at 4:00 am (0100 GMT), one after the other," an interior ministry official said. He put the toll from the attacks at four dead and nine wounded, all men. A defence ministry official confirmed the toll. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.
It was not immediately clear why the victims were targeted. Violence is down across Iraq from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 239 people were killed in violence in Iraq in August, according to official figures.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011