Car bombing kills 12 in Iraq's violence-wracked capital

By Ibrahim Salih

BAGHDAD (AA) – At least 12 people were killed by a car-bomb that shook Iraqi capital Baghdad on Monday, according to a local police officer.

The car-bomb exploded in a busy public square in eastern Baghdad’s Shia-majority Sadr City, Police First Lieutenant Hatem al-Jabri told Anadolu Agency.

He added that another 35 people had been injured in the attack.

"The powerful blast occurred when the square was teeming with laborers and passersby," the police officer said.

With many of the injured in serious condition, the death toll is expected to rise further.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Iraqi officials typically blame such attacks on the Daesh terrorist group, which overran vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq in 2014.

Last Saturday, at least 27 people were killed -- and dozens more injured -- in a twin bombing claimed by Daesh in the Iraqi capital.

Officials in Baghdad say such seemingly random attacks are retaliation by the terrorist group for an ongoing Iraqi army campaign aimed at recapturing the Daesh-held city of Mosul.