A car bomb, followed in quick succession by another explosion, killed 18 people and wounded over 40 others in central Baghdad today as British prime minister Gordon Brown was in town on a visit, Iraqi police said.
Police and traffic police were among the casualties in the explosions that shook the Nahdha neighbourhood in Baghdad, near a traffic police station and a hospital, police said.
Violent attacks have dropped sharply in Iraq, where the US-led invasion in 2003 unleashed years of sectarian bloodshed and insurgent violence, but car bombs, assassinations and other attacks still occur routinely.
Mr Brown flew into Baghdad today to discuss plans for the final drawdown of British troops in Iraq with Mr Maliki.
The British prime minister and his Iraqi counterpart Nouri Maliki said today that UK forces will have "completed their tasks" in the first half of 2009 and will then leave the country.