A suicide car bomb attack on a traffic police compound in central Baghdad Friday killed at least four people and wounded six, security and medical sources said.

The blast took place in Karrada, a neighbourhood of the Iraqi capital that has been repeatedly targeted in recent years.

Interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan said in a statement that the attack was carried out by a suicide car bomber and "killed four people, including a police lieutenant colonel."

Medical and police sources said at least another six people were wounded in the blast, which lit up the sky in the usually busy neighbourhood but struck a relatively quiet side street shortly before 11:00 pm (2000 GMT).

One of the deadliest bombings to hit Karrada occurred in July 2016, when a suicide truck bomb explosion set teeming shopping arcades ablaze and killed more than 320 people.

Nearly all suicide attacks are claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, which is defending its last major Iraqi bastion of Mosul against a massive operation launched by security forces last October.

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Frontline clinic window on hell of IS-held Mosul areas

The horrific wounds and gruesome accounts of the victims filling a frontline clinic in west Mosul in Iraq offer a window on the hell inside the last jihadist strongholds.

Dozens of wounded are rushed in every day to receive emergency assistance from the staff at the small facility of Al-Shabkhun in the heart of west Mosul, which has been engulfed in fighting since mid-February.

Mahmud Mo … read more