Baghdad: A mortar barrage followed minutes later by a car bomb blasted Baghdad's upscale Karradah district on Thursday killing a total of 27 people and wounding 63, police said.
The explosions occurred at midmorning in a religiously mixed neighborhood controlled by a major Shia party, two days after President George W Bush approved plans to send more US and Iraqi troops into the capital city to curb rising sectarian violence.
Several mortars landed in the district, some destroying a bank and an apartment building that later collapsed in flames, said Interior Ministry secretary Saadoun Abu a-Ula. The others exploded in the middle of busy streets crowded with traffic.
The car bomb exploded just blocks away near a gas station, shattering storefronts and spraying flaming gasoline onto homes and stores, the Interior Ministry said.
Police Col Abbas Ohammed Salman gave the casualty toll as 27 dead and 63 wounded but said the deaths could rise because many of the injuries were severe.
Karradah is among the city's most upscale districts and home to several leading politicians from the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the country's biggest Shia party.
Dozens of dazed, blood-soaked survivors shuffled through the rubble as emergency crews loaded weeping victims into ambulances, witnesses said.
The complex attack occurred as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was en route home from Washington, where he discussed the deteriorating security situation with President George W Bush.
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