At least eight people were killed and 28 others wounded when a car bomb went off near a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad late on Friday (November 14) evening, police said.
The blast in the Kri'at district damaged a number of shops and cars.
“The car was parked here and we thought that it belongs to a resident of the area. We returned home and less than 5 minutes the car went off, causing a large explosion that damaged the whole street. (Reporter asks: Was it powerful?). It was very powerful. There were a number of dead and wounded,” said a resident of the district
The blast comes less than an hour after a car bomb attack in Baghdad's Waziriya district killed 10 people and wounded 36 others.
Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday he intends to remove concrete barriers from Baghdad, despite little sign of a respite from car bombs they were designed to thwart, and give a greater role to police in securing the capital.
Baghdad, like much of Iraq, faces steady bloodshed.
Abadi praised what he called “excellent” security operations in Baghdad, and his comments suggested he aimed to reduce the army's security role in the city of 7 million people. REUTERS