Iraq car bombing kills 12 in Baghdad

Firefighters try to extinguish fire at the site of a suicide car bomb attack in the eastern Habibiya neighbourhood of Baghdad, Iraq on 15 February 2017. [Murtadha Sudani/Anadolu Agency]

Firefighters try to extinguish fire at the site of a suicide car bomb attack in the eastern Habibiya neighbourhood of Baghdad, Iraq on 15 February 2017. [Murtadha Sudani/Anadolu Agency]

Firefighters try to extinguish fire at the site of a suicide car bomb attack in the eastern Habibiya neighbourhood of Baghdad, Iraq on 15 February 2017. [Murtadha Sudani/Anadolu Agency]

Firefighters try to extinguish fire at the site of a suicide car bomb attack in the eastern Habibiya neighbourhood of Baghdad, Iraq on 15 February 2017. [Murtadha Sudani/Anadolu Agency]

Firefighters try to extinguish fire at the site of a suicide car bomb attack in the eastern Habibiya neighbourhood of Baghdad, Iraq on 15 February 2017. [Murtadha Sudani/Anadolu Agency]

Firefighters try to extinguish fire at the site of a suicide car bomb attack in the eastern Habibiya neighbourhood of Baghdad, Iraq on 15 February 2017. [Murtadha Sudani/Anadolu Agency]

Firefighters try to extinguish fire at the site of a suicide car bomb attack in the eastern Habibiya neighbourhood of Baghdad, Iraq on 15 February 2017. [Murtadha Sudani/Anadolu Agency]

Iraqi security forces gather at the site of a suicide car bomb attack in the eastern Habibiya neighbourhood of Baghdad, Iraq on 15 February 2017. [Murtadha Sudani/Anadolu Agency]

Iraqi security forces gather at the site of a suicide car bomb attack in the eastern Habibiya neighbourhood of Baghdad, Iraq on 15 February 2017. [Murtadha Sudani/Anadolu Agency]

At least 12 people were killed when a car rigged with explosives exploded in eastern Baghdad today, a security official said.

Captain Nazhan Al-Khudar, of Baghdad police, told the Anadolu Agency the blast happened “Wednesday evening near car showrooms in Baghdad’s eastern Sadr city, leaving 12 dead and 30 others injured.”

“The ambulances rushed to the blast scene and carried the dead and injured to the nearby hospitals. A number of civilian cars and shops were damaged as a result of the blast.”

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No group has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing but Iraqi officials often point the finger at Daesh militants, which overran vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq in 2014.

The violence comes amid an ongoing offensive launched by the Iraqi army to recapture Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from Daesh.