Market bombings kill 18 around Iraq’s capital — official

BAGHDAD — A series of bombings targeting busy markets killed 18 people in and around the capital, Baghdad, on Saturday, said Iraqi officials.

Police officials said the deadliest attack took place Saturday night when a motorcycle bomb exploded near a line of cell phone shops in Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr City, killing nine people and wounding 25 others.

Several shops and cars were damaged in the attack. Police sealed off the area as ambulances evacuated the wounded to nearby hospitals.

Earlier in the day, a bomb blast in a vegetable wholesale market in a village near the town of Iskandariyah killed four people and wounded 14. Iskandariyah lies 50 kilometres south of Baghdad.

Elsewhere police say a bomb exploded at another market, killing five people and wounding 14, in the Shiite village of Sabaa Al Bour, about 30 kilometres north of Baghdad. Hospital officials confirmed the casualty toll from all attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release details to journalists.

Iraq sees near-daily bombings and other attacks mainly targeting Shiite neighbourhoods and security forces. The attacks are often claimed by the Sunni extremist Islamic State group which seized much of northern and western Iraq in a summer offensive.