Baghdad blasts toll rises to 18

Bomb attacks targeting Iraqi police patrols in Baghdad left at least 18 people dead and 57 wounded this morning, police said.

A suicide car bomb targeting a police patrol outside a petrol station near the Elouya Hospital in central Baghdad killed 10 people, including four policemen and wounded 18 people, including six policemen, police Lt Bilal Ali Majeed said.

The blast damaged 20 cars, including six police vehicles, as well as several nearby shops.

Another suicide car bomb exploded near an underpass in the centre of the city, killing two civilians and two police special forces members, and wounding 13 people, including seven police special forces troops, Majeed said.

Earlier, a bomb hidden under a parked car near al-Nidaa Mosque in northern Baghdad exploded as a police patrol passed by, killing three civilians and wounding another 20, police Lt Thair Mahmoud said.

In western Baghdad, a roadside bomb in near Yarmouk hospital wounded four people, including a policeman, Mahmoud said.

Elsewhere, in the upscale district of Mansour, a roadside bomb explosion killed a man as he accompanied his daughter to take an academic exam, police said.

His daughter and another person were injured.