A roadside bomb in northwest Baghdad's Shia Kadhimiya district killed seven people and wounded 23 others today, police said, a day after another bomb in the area killed nine.
Kadhimiya is home to one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines, and the blast bears the hallmarks of Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda, which considers Iraq's majority Shi'ites heretics and frequently targets the sect's mosques and religious festivals.
Violence has dropped sharply in Iraq over the past year, and US President Barack Obama lauded the increased security during a visit to Baghdad on Tuesday. Yet al-Qaeda and other insurgents are still capable of launching frequent large-scale attacks.
An apparently co-ordinated series of seven car bombs ripped through Baghdad killing 37 people on Monday.