At least 18 people have been killed and over 50 others wounded in a double-bombing in eastern Baghdad, Iraqi police have said.
The Associated Press quoted an offical as saying that the blasts on Wednesday were targeting traffic police.
He said that the first blast was from a car bomb followed moments later by a roadside bomb that went off nearby, targeting people rushing to the scene.
A defence ministry source confirmed that a car parked outside a traffic police post in the Munstansariyah district had exploded at around 11.15am local time [08:15 GMT].
The US military confirmed an attack in the area and said that "coalition forces are responding to the incident".
Security forces continue to be the target of attacks by fighters in Iraq despite an overall decline in violence in the country this year.
The blast came as Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, was in Iraq on an unannounced visit, a day after the Iraqi cabinet drafted a law paving the way for British forces to withdraw in 2009, more than six years after the US-led invasion.
The law sets the end of May as the final date for combat operations and end-July as the withdrawal date.
Also on Wednesday, Iraqi police said a roadside bomb in the northern city of Mosul killed one civilian and wounded four others.
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