BAGHDAD: A powerful car bomb rocked central Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 25 bystanders, wounding more than 75 and destroying a row of shops in a busy commercial district.

Meanwhile, the US military announced the deaths of eight more of its troops, including four who were killed in a single day of fighting in restive Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, scene of a month-old offensive.

A journalist said he saw dozens of casualties being carried away from the site of the Baghdad blast, which partially demolished one building and left several vehicles in flames. Medics at nearby Ibn Nafees hospital said they had received 15 corpses and were treating 64 casualties, including many women and children caught outside in the popular shopping area on the eve of Friday's day of prayers.

The bomb exploded in a loop of the Tigris river just south of the fortified area which houses the US embassy and Iraqi government offices, sending up a column of black smoke and rattling windows two kilometres away.

One of the main fronts is in Diyala, where 10,000 US and Iraqi troops have pressed a month-long assault against Al Qaeda strongholds, and where three marines and a sailor were killed on Tuesday.

On the same day another soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in the capital, the military said in a separate statement.

Another soldier was shot dead in south Baghdad on Wednesday, and earlier this week a soldier and a marine died of non-battle related causes in separate incidents, the military said.

Earlier on Thursday the number-two US commander in Iraq told reporters that US casualties seemed to be declining since May, calling it an “initial positive sign” that a five-month-old security plan was showing results.—AFP