BAGHDAD - A SPATE of attacks in the Iraqi capital on Sunday killed at least 13 people and wounded 24 others, including women and children, security officials said.

In the deadliest attack at least nine people were killed and 13 wounded in a car bombing at a crowded market in Baghdad's Bayaa district, a mainly Shiite area in the southwest of the capital, police said.

Workers at the nearby Yarmouk hospital said women and children were among those wounded in the midday attack.

Two policemen were also killed by sniper fire in the western neighbourhood of Mansour, police told AFP, while two guards manning a checkpoint in the mainly Sunni quarter of Dora were killed in a drive-by shooting.

The guards were members of the Awakening movement, former Sunni rebels recruited by the US military to fight against Al-Qaeda.

The attack was the second in Dora in as many days. On Friday, a car bomb blast at a crowded market killed 13 people and wounded 27, sparking clashes between insurgents and police.

In central Baghdad's Palestine street, a major commercial thoroughfare, a roadside bomb wounded at least seven people on Sunday, including two police, officials said.

A police patrol just north of Baghdad in Wasziriya was also targeted by a roadside bomb which wounded three policemen and a civilian.

The US military, meanwhile, said it had detained three suspects, including a man who may be linked to the city's car bomb and insurgency networks.

Violence in Baghdad has fallen sharply over the past few months, despite regular attacks.

According to US statistics, an average of four attacks a day target the Iraqi capital, 89 per cent less than in 2006 and 83 per cent lower than in 2007. Overall violence in Iraq is at four-year lows.

But the interior ministry has said the number of car bombs and roadside blasts in Baghdad had increased since the early Sept start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. -- AFP