A suicide car bomb attack in a densely-populated neighbourhood of Baghdad yesterday killed at least 32 people and left dozens wounded, police and hospital officials said.
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 61 wounded in the blast, the second major attack in Baghdad in three days.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the suicide car bomb attack. The jihadist organisation via its propaganda agency Amaq claimed the "martyrdom operation" had killed around 40 people.
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 terrorists will attempt to attack civilians in order to make up for their losses, but we assure the Iraqi people and the world that we are able to end terrorism and shorten its life," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told reporters after meeting with visiting French President Francois Hollande.
The caliphate IS proclaimed in 2014 is shrinking steadily and jihadist fighters are defending Mosul, their last major urban stronghold in Iraq.