A mortar barrage followed minutes later by a car bomb blasted Baghdad's upscale Karradah district Thursday, killing at least 31 people and injuring 153, police said.
The explosions were reported at midmorning in a religiously mixed neighborhood controlled by a major Shiite party.
Several mortars hit the district, some destroying a bank and an apartment building that later collapsed in flames, said Interior Ministry secretary Saadoun Abu al-Ula. The others blasts in the middle of busy streets crowded with traffic.
According to the AP, the car bomb went off just blocks away near a gas station, shattering storefronts and spraying flaming gasoline onto homes and stores, the Interior Ministry said.
The blast took place some 200 yards from the house of Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite and a senior figure in the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the country's leading Shiite party.
Police Col. Abbas Mohammed Salman said 31 people died and 153 were wounded. He added that the death toll could rise because many of the injuries were severe.
Also Thursday, gunmen killed four security guards outside a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad, police said.
