Attacks in Iraqi capital kill at least 19

A car bomb explosion at a major crimes unit in central Baghdad killed at least 15 people and wounded more than 30 today, said police Lieutenant Colonel Falah al-Mohammadawi.

It was not immediately clear how many of those killed were bystanders and how many were employees of the Karradah unit, which is run by the Interior Ministry, he said.

Suspected insurgents also set off roadside bombs targeting police patrols across the capital, killing at least four people and wounding a dozen others, police said.

The roadside blast in Baghdad’s mostly Sunni Muslim neighbourhood of Azamiyah killed two policemen and two bystanders, according to police Lieutenant Ahmed Mohammed Ali. At least seven others, two policemen and five civilians, were wounded, he said.

Another bomb in the capital wounded four civilians and no police in Karradah, which is mostly Shiite but has a large Sunni minority.

In Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one policeman and wounded two pedestrians.

Back in the capital, another civilian was seriously wounded by an Iraqi army patrol that was shooting in the air to clear traffic in the western neighbourhood of Yarmouk, police said.