At least 13 killed in Baghdad car bombing: police

BAGHDAD: At least 13 people were killed by a car bomb in Baghdad on Saturday, police said, in one of the deadliest attacks in the Iraqi capital this year.

A police colonel told AFP "at least 13 people were killed and 39 wounded in a car bomb facing a popular restaurant in the Karrada area".

Karrada is packed with shops and restaurants and would have been busy on Saturday night, which marks the end of the weekend in Iraq.

No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes after a series of similar bombings in the capital.

Eleven people were killed and more than 40 wounded in a wave of car bomb attacks on Thursday and another nine were killed in two car bombings in Baghdad on Monday.

The Islamic State jihadist group claimed it had carried out those attacks to avenge attacks on displaced persons from a Sunni province.

Since the start of April, 114,000 residents have fled fighting between government forces and IS in the Ramadi area of the western province of Anbar.