25 killed in car bombings

At least 25 people were killed in co-ordinated car bomb attacks in western Baghdad today, a doctor at a hospital in the Iraqi capital said.

At least 55 others were wounded, said the doctor at Yarmouk hospital, which received the victims.

The attacks occurred in a commercial area and public transport hub in a mixed Sunni and Shiite neighbourhood.

In central Baghdad, a bomb exploded in an open-air market, killing four people and wounding 15 others, police said.

The explosives were hidden in a CD player delivered to an electronics repair shop there, police said. The man who asked for the repair left the area before it exploded.

Police also said that two roadside bombs targeted an Iraqi police patrol in an eastern neighbourhood of the capital, killing four policemen – including a lieutenant colonel – and injuring 12 people.

In Kirkuk, 290 kilometres (180 miles) north of the Iraqi capital, another roadside bomb killed three civilians – including an eight-year-old girl – and injured six other people, police said.