Deadly blasts shatter suicide bombing lull in Baghdad

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle in a Shia-majority neighbourhood of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least nine people, an interior ministry official said.

Thirty others were wounded in the explosion in the Habibiya area, near the vast district of Sadr City in northern Baghdad, the official said.

A hospital official and a colonel in the Baghdad police confirmed the toll from the blast, which struck in an area where many car dealerships are found.

The attack comes one day after a car bomb explosion in southern Baghdad killed at least four people, according to the same sources.

The large explosion also caused fire damage to nearby shops and car workshops.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which follows a relative calm after Baghdad suffered a wave of suicide bombings in January.

Security has been tightened in the capital, which mainly involves increased "inspections going in and out of residential, commercial and industrial areas", witnesses told The New Arab.