Bombs in Baghdad's Sadr City killed Abdul Aziz Sultan's brother while 16-year-old Mohammed Nasser lost a leg -- stark reminders that even as US forces draw down, the war is far from over for Iraqis.

US President Barack Obama said on October 7 that the United States was "responsibly ending" the war in Iraq.

All of the roughly 41,000 US soldiers in Iraq are required to leave by year's end, unless Baghdad and Washington reach an accord on a post-2011 US military training mission.

Negotiations on the trainers are ongoing, with US officials insisting they must have immunity from Iraqi prosecution, while Iraqi leaders say such protection is unnecessary.

Meanwhile, Iraqis are being killed and wounded in near-daily attacks.

At least two bombs exploded on Thursday night in Sadr City, an impoverished Shiite-majority area in north Baghdad, killing 18 people and wounding at least 43, interior and defence ministry officials said.

Among the dead was 21-year-old Abdul Rahman.

His brother Abdul Aziz, 36, said he had a knack for computers and wanted to go to college.

"He talked to me yesterday. I even told him, 'You are a man now, you look good,'" said Abdul Aziz, sitting in a chair in one of several long, open-ended floral-patterned tents set up in Sadr City for mourners to pay their respects to families of the dead.

"I went out of the house when the explosion happened. I tried to call him but I didn't reach him, and then a stranger answered. He told me I will find him in the corner near the ice factory," Abdul Aziz said.

"I went there, and I saw him," he said. "I lost my brother. Life suddenly turned bleak in my eyes."

Thirteen-year-old Mohammed Abbas was also among the dead.

"He was one of the best students, he was in the first year of intermediate school," said his uncle, 41-year-old Hassan, who only gave his first name.

"His ambition was to become a doctor or an engineer in the future; he was very good in his studies," Hassan said, speaking in another tent set up just down the street from the scene of one of the blasts.

Mohammed Nasser, 16, was among at least 43 people wounded in the Sadr City bombings.

The curly-haired schoolboy sat propped up in a narrow bed in a room with a other casualties in Al-Shahid Al-Sadr Hospital, with bloody bandages covering what was left of his left leg, the lower half of which he lost in the blasts.

"I was standing near the site of the explosion when the first one took place. Then I tried to return home when the second one happened, and I collapsed," he said.

Dr Ahmed Majeed said the hospital had received at least 20 wounded people from the attacks, in addition to eight who were dead on arrival.

"We tried our best but you know our abilities are limited. We worked ... from 8:00 pm (1700 GMT) until 1:30 am," he said.

The Sadr City bombings came a day after a spate of attacks in Baghdad mainly targeting security forces, including two suicide car bombs minutes apart against police stations, killed 23 people and wounded more than 70.

Despite a decline in violence since 2006 and 2007, 185 people were still killed in attacks last month, according to official figures.

"Any normal person, if he goes out in the street, he can't guarantee ... if he will return home or not," Hassan said.

"An attack or explosion can take place any time," he said. "All Iraqis suffer from this problem. The security forces cannot control the security situation."