A car bomb and a roadside bomb blew up in a crowded parking area outside a government building north of Baghdad today, killing at least 28 people and wounding dozens more, officials said.
The blasts struck a municipal office in the town of Taji, about 20km north of the Iraqi capital, a day after a wave of attacks on police and soldiers that underscored Iraq's fragile security as US troops prepare to leave by year-end.
The explosions hit police, government workers and Iraqis lined up for national identity cards. Television footage showed bodies and body parts scattered across the open lot.
"I was standing in a line when suddenly a powerful blast shook the ground. I immediately covered my face as shrapnel and shattered glass flew around," said one witness.
"It was a double explosion. The first was caused by a car bomb," said Raad al-Tamimi, head of the Taji municipality. "The place was crowded with people who were going to process official papers and with police and employees."
More than eight years after the invasion that ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq is plagued by an insurgency that launches attacks on a daily basis. US military officials say Iraq sees an average of 14 attacks a day.
Militants have targeted Iraqi police and soldiers for months as a way of undermining confidence in their ability to provide security when U.S. forces withdraw by the end of December under a security agreement between the two countries.
Taji, a mixed area of Shias and Sunnis that was once a battlefield for al-Qaeda and the Mehdi Army militia, was struck in May by a suicide bomber who killed at least 11 soldiers.
Mr Tamimi said many of the wounded in today's blasts were in serious condition at a hospital in the Kadhimiya district of northern Baghdad.
Reuters