A roadside bomb followed by a blast from a motorcycle rigged with explosives killed 15 people and wounded 70 near a Sunni mosque in central Baghdad on Tuesday, an interior ministry source said.
A hospital source said at least 11 bodies and many wounded had been brought to the hospital. Television footage showed United States forces helping the wounded from the blasts in the Khilani district in the centre of the city.
A police source said it appeared the blasts were timed so that the second would hit rescue services who came to aid victims of the first explosion.
Earlier in another central Baghdad area, Karrada, police had just succeeded in defusing a roadside bomb when another bomb exploded, killing four people.
The latest attacks come as the Iraqi government prepares to launch a major new security plan for Baghdad aimed at stemming a spiral of sectarian violence that threatens to engulf Iraq in full-scale civil war.
The United Nations said on Tuesday more than 34 000 Iraqi civilians were killed in violence last year. — Reuters