BASRA, Oct 31: At least 20 people were killed when a car bomb tore through a crowded market in the southern Iraqi port city of Basra late on Monday, security sources said.

“Twenty people, mostly civilians, were killed and 45 wounded in the car bomb attack in a crowded market in Basra,” an interior ministry source said, adding that the toll was expected to climb.

The bomb exploded as a police patrol passed, tearing into a crowded market near a newly opened shopping mall and destroying at least four cars.

On Sept 13, four Iraqi private security guards were killed and two wounded in a roadside bombing outside Basra, the biggest city in southern Iraq, in the last attack to hit the relatively quiet region.

In recent weeks there has been an increase in attacks in the south, where the mainly Shia population is generally less hostile to the presence of US-led troops than Sunnis in north-central Iraq. —AFP