Deadly Baghdad suicide bombing targets Shia area

A suicide bomber has detonated an explosive vest near a security checkpoint in northwest Baghdad, Iraqi officials said.

A police officer told the Associated Press news agency that an attacker on foot blew himself up on Sunday morning at one of the entrances to the Shia district of Kadhimiyah, killing at least 10 civilians and four policemen. Another 31 other people were wounded.

Sources at the Kadhimiya hospital, where victims of the blast were taken, said the death toll could rise as some of the wounded were in a critical condition.

Three more civilians were killed and 11 wounded in a bomb explosion in an outdoor market in Baghdad’s western suburb of Abu Ghraib, another police officer said.

Two medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to release information.

READ MORE: Baghdad attack – devastating scenes of carnage in Karada

No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks 

Baghdad is on high alert for attacks after a blast  in the central Karada district on July 3, claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), killed more than 300 people. It was one of the deadliest bombings since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Earlier this month, visiting US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Washington will send 560 more troops to Iraq to help in the fight against ISIL, also known as ISIS.

The United Nations says more than 3,000 civilians have been killed in violence across the country this year.