Baghdad suicide car bomb blast kills dozens

A suicide car bomb attack in a densely-populated neighbourhood of Baghdad killed at least 32 people and left dozens wounded on Monday.

Many of the victims were daily labourers waiting for jobs at an intersection in Sadr City, a sprawling majority Shia neighbourhood in the northeast of the capital that has been repeatedly targeted.

Pictures posted on social media shortly after the explosion showed a huge plume of black smoke billowing into the sky and seriously injured people being evacuated.

According to a police colonel, at least 32 people were killed and 60 wounded in the blast, the second major attack in Baghdad in three days.

At least 27 people were killed by twin explosions in a busy market area in central Baghdad on Saturday, in what was the deadliest such attack in the Iraqi capital in two months.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack via its propaganda agency Amaq, claiming the "martyrdom operation" had killed around 40 people.

The caliphate IS proclaimed in 2014 is shrinking steadily and jihadist fighters are defending Mosul, their last major urban stronghold in Iraq.

Observers have voiced fears that the group, once it definitively loses its status as a land-holding force, could increasingly revert to targeting civilians in Iraq's cities.