A car bomb blew up in the Shiite- dominated Sadr City in eastern Baghdad on Friday, killing at least three and wounding 20 others, Iraqi police source told Xinhua. "An explosive-laden car parked in a Cars Fair Field in Sadr City detonated around 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT), killing at least three people and injuring 20 others," the source said on condition of anonymity. Sadr City is the stronghold of Shiite militia "Mehdi Army" loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. This area has been repeatedly targeted by car bombings and suicide bombings in the past. On Nov. 23 last year, a series of apparently coordinated bombings killed 200 people and wounded another 250 there, making it the deadliest attack in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Meanwhile, the police source said that another car bomb went off on Friday afternoon near a passing police patrol in Saydiyah neighborhood in southern Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding two others, including a policeman. The blast also damaged two police vehicles and several civilian cars, the source added. Violence persists in Baghdad despite the presence of tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers across the capital in a major security crackdown aimed at curbing insurgency and sectarian violence in the war-torn country.