Two killed in car bomb attack in Baghdad

At least two people were killed and 10 wounded Saturday in a car bomb explosion near the Iraqi interior ministry's intelligence headquarters in capital Baghdad, a ministry source said.

The attack occurred around midday when a booby-trapped car detonated near the intelligence headquarters in al-Masbah district, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The attack came a day after a deadly attack, said to be carried out by Shia militiamen, on a Sunni mosque during Friday prayers in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala left dozens dead.

Earlier in the day, Diyala's provincial police chief Jamil al-Shimary said a committee of high-ranking security officers was dispatched from Baghdad to carry out an investigation into the Sunni mosque incident to bring the militiamen to justice.

The security situation in Iraq began to drastically deteriorate since June 10 when bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security forces and hundreds of militants of Islamic State (IS) Sunni extremists organisation.

The IS took control of the country's northern city of Mosul and later seized swathes of territories after the Iraqi security forces abandoned their posts in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces.