At least 14 dead in Baghdad suicide bombing

At least 14 people died on Monday in a suicide attack on a Shia-majority area of north Baghdad, security and medical officials said.

The blast occured in Kadhimiyah, the home of a revered Shia shrine, and wounded at least 43 people.

The bomber struck near vendors selling goods on the pavement in the district's crowded Aden Square, an AFP correspondent reported.

Blood stains were still visible on the ground.

The suicide bomb is the second to strike Baghdad in three days. On Saturday, an attack inside a restaurant in the Jadida area killed at least 23 people.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the Monday attack, but the tactics are almost exclusively used by Sunni militants in Iraq, including by the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) group.

IS spearheaded an offensive that swept through large areas north and west of Baghdad last June, and Iraqi forces are battling to regain ground with support from US-led air strikes.

A roadside bomb also exploded in a commercial district in the Shia-majority Husseiniyah area near Baghdad on Monday, killing at least one person and wounding at least seven.

Militants often target crowded places like restaurants, squares and markets to maximise casualties.

Groups like IS and al-Qaeda often consider Shia Muslims to be heretics, and frequently target them with deadly bombings.