BAGHDAD : An explosion tore through a market in a flashpoint Baghdad district on Tuesday, killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens in the first massive car bomb to hit the capital in over two weeks.

Yarmuk hospital received 24 dead - including four women, three children and six corpses burned beyond recognition - and 39 wounded from the bombing in Amil, in southwest Baghdad, a medic said.

The vast majority of the wounded were women and children, said the hospital official, who asked not to be named.

Defence and security officials put the toll at 25 dead and 60 wounded.

A violent mixed neighbourhood flanking the main road to airport, Amil has been infiltrated by Shiite militia fighters and also comes under attack from Sunni insurgents.

In the capital's violent mixed neighbourhood, large bomb attacks, the hallmark of the Sunni insurgency, often ignite a cycle of revenge, with Shiite death squads exacting collective punishment against local Sunnis.

Shortly after the car bombing, two mortars slammed into a teacher's college in Baghdad's northern Adhamiyah neighbourhood, a Sunni stronghold on the mostly Shiite eastern side of the city, killing at least three, according to security officials.

Three months into a city-wide security plan, US and Iraqi forces are battling to quell the cycle of violence and Baghdad has not been hit by a major car bomb attack since May 6.

Since February, thousands of extra US and Iraqi troops have poured into the city to try to end the sectarian battles tearing it apart and give Iraqi leaders breathing room to push ahead with a process of national reconciliation.

But outside the capital insurgents and militias continue to launch brutal attacks. On Tuesday gunmen opened fire on a car travelling north of Baghdad near Khalis, killing a family of six.

"Armed men set up an illegal checkpoint and then opened fire on the car as it approached, killing a mother, a father, and four children," said Lieutenant Ahmed Ali, a local police officer from the restive Diyala province.

In the east of the capital, a roadside bomb exploded next to a police patrol, killing one officer and wounding three others, according to both a security official and Al-Kindi hospital.

In the western Anbar province, where several local tribes have recently broken with the Sunni insurgency, US and Iraqi troops clashed with a local kidnapping gang, killing nine alleged insurgents and freeing 12 hostages.

On Monday US-led forces freed five people in the same area, all of whom showed signs of torture.

Meanwhile, the son of prominent Shiite leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim confirmed that his father has lung cancer, for which he is currently being treated in Iran following a visit to doctors in the United States.

"The health of my father is stable and the doctors in America confirmed to him that the cancer tumour is limited and could brought be brought under control," Ammar al-Hakim told AFP.

Hakim, who like his father combines politics with his role as a leading Shiite cleric, is often spoken of as his potential successor.

On Tuesday, however, he played down talk that his father might step down.

"My father is in good health and is able to get over this issue. He is now in the Islamic republic of Iran to complete treatment and after that he will return to Iraq to carry out his duties," he added.

Hakim's Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) which until a week ago was known as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, was founded in Iran in 1982 as an opposition movement in exile and retains close ties to Tehran.

- AFP/ms