Suicide car bomb kills at least 18 in Shi'ite Baghdad neighbourhood

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomb killed at least 18 people and wounded 51 others at a checkpoint entrance to the Shi'ite neighbourhood of Kadhimiya in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, a police official and a medical official said.

The blast happened in the late afternoon as cars lined up to enter the affluent neighbourhood, home to one of the holiest shrines in Shi'ite Islam. Among the dead were five police.

In a separate incident, a roadside bomb blew up on a busy street in al-Qahira district of northern Baghdad, killing three passersby, police and medical officials said.

Al-Qahira is a mixed neighborhood and it was not clear who was targeted in the blast.

The attack in Kadhimiya marked the third straight day of bombings targeting the district and other mostly Shi'ite neighbourhoods in the Iraqi capital and its outskirts. The blasts have killed at least 77 people since Sunday.

Islamic State, a rigidly conservative Sunni Muslim group, has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks on Shi'ite neighbourhoods since Sunday as it looks to sow terror within the capital.

The group has seized large sections of northern and western Iraq as it seeks to establish an Islamic Empire across the borders of Iraq and Syria.

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Editing Ned Parker and Crispian Balmer)