4 killed in car bomb attack in Iraq's Baghdad

At least four people were killed and nine others wounded on Saturday in a car bomb explosion in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a government statement said.

The attack took place in the afternoon when a booby-trapped car detonated at a crowded area near a government building in Baghdad's central district of Shawaka, the statement of the Baghdad Operations Command said.

A police source told Xinhua that the blast destroyed many civilian cars and caused damages to several nearby buildings.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the Islamic State (IS) militant group, in most cases, is responsible for such deadly attacks targeting crowded areas, including markets, cafes and mosques across Iraq.

The incident came as the Iraqi security forces and allied U.S.-led coalition forces are carrying out a major offensive to dislodge IS group from its stronghold of Mosul, the capital of Iraq's northern province of Nineveh.

The extremist IS group has carried out a series of counterattacks by suicide bombers and car bombings in different parts of Iraq since the Mosul offensive started in mid-October.

Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, is the second largest city in Iraq.

The city has been under IS control since June 2014, when Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups, such as the IS, on the U.S., which invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003. Endit