Car bomb kills at least 11 in Iraq

A car bomb at a market in a poor Shiite neighbourhood on the eastern outskirts of Baghdad killed at least 11 people and wounded 12 others at sunset today, police said.

At Baghdad’s al-Kindi hospital, police Lieutenant Abdulal Ibrahim said the dead and injured were brought to the hospital in pickup trucks and residents told him there were more victims coming.

The bomb struck outside a market in the Nahrawan district, about 32km (20 miles) east of Baghdad, a poor district heavily populated by Shiite Muslims.

Shiites have suffered the brunt of a massive campaign of bomb and shooting attacks launched on Wednesday and claimed by al-Qaida in Iraq.

The Iraqi insurgency is predominantly Sunni Muslim and has vowed to continue stirring sectarian conflict as the date approaches for the October 15 referendum on a new constitution, which most militant Sunnis have already rejected.