Baghdad car bomb kills 10

BAGHDAD, (AFP) - A car bomb ripped through a main intersection in a busy Baghdad shopping district on Wednesday, killing at least 10 Iraqis and wounding another two dozen, medics said.

The bomb exploded near the Karrada Harij electronics market at a crossroads known for the popular Al-Fiqma ice cream store, sending a dull boom echoing across the city. Iraqi forces sealed off the area shortly after the blast, as residents and ambulance ferried the dead and dying to city hospitals.

Ten men were killed and 25 people, including women, were brought in with injuries following the explosion, said an official at the Ibn Nafees hospital. A source at the defence ministry said 12 people had died in the blast. There was no word on who might have planted the bomb, but the area is known as a stronghold of supporters of Shiite leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim and previous attacks of this kind have been blamed on Sunni extremists.

Iraq is in the grip of an overlapping series of civil conflicts and insurgents often carry out bomb attacks on crowded civilian areas in order to foment sectarian tension and undermine the US-backed government. Last month civilian casualties climbed by a third compared to June.