Car bomb outside Baghdad hospital kills 28

Baghdad: A car bomb near a funeral procession outside a hospital in east Baghdad on Friday killed 28 people, the capital's deadliest day in a month, amid a political standoff that has stoked sectarian tensions.

The explosion, which also left 50 people wounded, came barely a month after US troops completed their withdrawal from Iraq, raising fresh concerns about the capabilities of domestic security forces.

The  attack struck outside Zafraniyah hospital in east Baghdad as a funeral procession was transporting the bodies of a family who had been killed in the capital a day earlier. Helicopters flew overhead as a heavy security presence cordoned off the site of the explosion, while distraught witnesses screamed in anguish.

A medic at Zafraniyah hospital said a car bomb killed 28 people and wounded 50 others. At least four women were among the fatalities.

An interior ministry official confirmed the explosion, but said it was caused by a suicide attacker driving an explosives-packed car. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

The blast hit the funeral procession of Mohammad Al Maliki, a real estate agent who was killed along with his wife and son a day earlier in the west Baghdad neighbourhood of Yarmuk.

The procession had collected Al Maliki's body and was transporting it for the funeral when the explosion struck.

Al Maliki and his family were killed by gunmen in Yarmuk, although there have been differing accounts of the attack itself. A doctor at Yarmuk hospital said the attackers burst into a real estate agency and killed three, while an interior ministry official said four people, including two real estate agents, died when gunmen opened fire on their car.