Bomb blast targets crowd at Baghdad petrol station

Baghdad: A car bomb exploded near a queue of people waiting to get fuel from a petrol station in central Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least seven people, police said.

The blast came hours after another car bomb explosion flattened an apartment building and killed on person in southern Baghdad.

At least 15 people were wounded by the bomb blast near the Karrada petrol station.

In southern Baghdad, a huge car bomb explosion killed at least one person and levelled an apartment building, police said.

Four others were wounded when an explosives-packed minivan blew up next to the residential building. It was unclear how many people were inside, police said.

Local residents helped clear debris as firefighters doused fierce flames from burning cars. Two crutches lay close to small pools of blood near a damaged car.

Also on Saturday, eight Shiite men from the same extended family were shot dead when gunmen stormed their home in Jbela, south of Baghdad, police said.

Three other men were wounded in the pre-dawn attack, but women and children were not harmed, the police said.

US and Iraqi forces have launched a crackdown to stem sectarian bloodshed between Shiite and Sunni Arabs that risks tearing Iraq apart, but violence has continued.