Suicide attack kills at least 15 in Iraq's capital

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber set off an explosive vest in a busy Baghdad square crowded with rush-hour commuters early Monday, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, officials said.

The attack took place in Adan Square, in a predominantly Shiite part of the capital, and appeared to be the latest in a near-daily string of attacks carried out by Sunni Islamic extremists targeting the country's Shiite majority.

A police officer provided the death toll and said 45 other people were wounded.

Hours after the attack, a bomb ripped through a commercial area in the capital's northeastern suburb of Husseiniyah, killing four civilians and wounding nine others, another police officer said.

Two medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.

The attacks came two days after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi lifted a midnight to 5 a.m. curfew in the capital that had been in place in various forms since 2004, when Iraq was engulfed in violence following the U.S.-led invasion the year before.

The government has struggled to impose security following the 2011 withdrawal of U.S. forces. Last summer the Islamic State group, which has claimed several previous attacks in and around the capital, swept across a third of the country, capturing the second largest city Mosul. A U.S.-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the extremist group since August.

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Associated Press writer Murtada Faraj contributed to this report.