BAGHDAD, Sept 16: At least 20 people were killed in bombings and gunbattles in Iraq on Sunday as the death toll rose to 49 from violence since the start of Ramazan, which Al Qaeda warned would be a bloody month.

In Baghdad, the relative calm which had prevailed since Ramazan began on Thursday was shattered when a car bomb ripped through crowds outside an electrical goods shopping mall, killing two people and wounding seven, security and medical officials said.

Insurgents then opened fire on security forces as they rushed to the scene in the mainly Sunni area of Mansour, the officials said. Seven civilians were killed and 12 wounded in the firefights.

In northern Iraq, a suicide bomber triggered his explosive vest in a crowded cafe in the town of Tuz, about 70 kilometres south of the oil city of Kirkuk, leaving bodies buried beneath rubble and causing pandemonium.

“There were eight people killed and 19 wounded,” said a doctor at the local hospital. “They were all men.” A suicide bomb attack in a cafe in Tuz last July killed 28 people.In Hilla, about 100 kilometres south of Baghad a traffic policeman and his 16-year-old son were abducted by gunmen, said local police Lieutenant Haider al-Husseini.

“Police found their bodies at midday in a rural area,” Husseini said.

In Baquba, 60 kilometres north of Baghdad, a boy of six was killed by sniper fire.

US forces said they had captured a man they believe is linked to the Abu Reesha assassination.—AFP