BAGHDAD: A car bomb exploded in a crowded marketplace in a mainly Shiite district of the Iraqi capital on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people, police and medical sources said.

A further 48 people were wounded by the blast in the Shurta neighbourhood of southwestern Baghdad.

The attack, which struck a busy commercial street in the western district of Bayaa, was the latest of a number of particularly deadly incidents in Baghdad in less than a week.

On Tuesday, at least 30 people died in two car bombings and attacks on police.

The worst car bombing left 19 dead and 43 wounded in the eastern district of Baghdad al-Jadida, a predominantly Shiite area that has been one of the most targeted by car bombs in recent years. Another four people were killed and 10 wounded in a similar attack in the southern neighbourhood of Zafaraniya.

The self-styled Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for both attacks, saying they had targeted Shiite militiamen, a claim it often makes even when most of the victims are civilians.

On Friday, a huge suicide car bomb attack claimed by IS killed dozens of people in Khan Bani Saad, a town just north of Baghdad.