DHAKA: A car bomb outside a cafe and other attacks in central Iraq killed at least 18 people on Monday, officials said.

The car bomb went off outside the cafe in the town of Buhriz, about 60km north of the capital, Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 24, police officials said, reports The Straits Times.

In the south-western suburbs of Baghdad, a roadside bomb hit a car with anti-al-Qaida Sunni fighters, killing two and wounding three, police and hospital officials said.

The Sunni militia group, known as the Sahwa, had joined forces with US troops at the height of the Iraq war to fight al-Qaida. Since then, it has been a target for Sunni insurgents, who call its members traitors.

BDST: 1735 HRS, DEC 09, 2013