BAGHDAD, Dec 27: Two bombs killed 28 people and wounded 55 in Baghdad on Saturday, police said.

The explosions on a long holiday weekend shook the city, where car bombs, roadside blasts and other attacks still strike routinely despite a sharp drop in violence in the last year.

The first explosion took place at a bus and taxi station in the Shi’ite district of Kadhimiya in northwestern Baghdad, where people usually gather at a major shrine on Saturdays.

Police said women and children were among the 25 dead and 45 wounded in the attack. The US military put the toll at 20 dead and 25 wounded.

After the attack, security forces sifted through twisted metal and burned shells of cars, some with bloodstained seats.

It was not clear if the blast was a suicide attack, which is the hallmark of Al Qaeda.

The second attack occurred later in Jurf al-Sakhar, on Baghdad’s southern outskirts, as Iraqi soldiers and members of a local patrol were trying to defuse a roadside bomb.—Reuters