Deadly car bomb attack rocks Baghdad

At least 18 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a bomb attack in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, officials say.

A suicide bomber reportedly detonated an explosives-packed car outside the offices of the Shia Waqf (Endowment), which looks after Shia religious sites.

As many as 60 people were injured by the blast in the Bab al-Muadham area.

Violence has fallen in Iraq since the height of insurgency in 2006 and 2007, but militants still frequently attack security forces and civilians.

The latest attack comes less than a week after a spate of bombings killed 17 people in Baghdad.

'Horrific scene'

Officials say the explosives-rigged car was parked in a car park near the Shia Waqf building.

The front of the three-storey office reportedly collapsed from the impact of the blast, which also shattered windows in surrounding buildings and damaged cars in the area.

An employee at the nearby health department also felt the impact of the blast.

"The ceiling fell on my head and I was slightly wounded in the head and fell down," Adel Ahmed told the Associated Press news agency.

He described the scene of the explosion as "horrific", with wounded people on the ground screaming for help.

Security forces cordoned off the scene and barred anyone from approaching the area, while firefighters continued to search the debris for survivors.

Call for calm

The bomb attack is alleged to be the result of a dispute over the al-Askari shrine

The deputy chief of the Shia Wafq, Sami al- Massudi, has appealed for calm following the attack.

"We call on the Iraqi people and especially on the sons of our religion to bury the strife because there is a plan to launch a civil war between the people, and between the Iraqi sects," he said.

Al-Massudi claimed the Shia Wafq had received threats in recent days as a result of a dispute over the al-Askari shrine.

Located in the Sunni-dominated city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, the gold-domed mosque is one of the most revered sites in Shia Islam.

It was hit by a series of extremist attacks between 2006 and 2007, which led the country to the brink of civil war.

Syria rebels 'kill 80 soldiers' in weekend clashes

At least 80 Syrian soldiers were killed by rebels over the weekend in clashes and attacks on security forces checkpoints, an activist group says.

Rebels told the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that more than 100 soldiers had died in the suburbs of Damascus and Idlib province.

The Observatory said it had confirmed the names of 80 dead with local medics.

Meanwhile, the European Council's president has said the EU and Russia must combine their efforts on Syria. After a summit in St Petersburg with President Vladimir Putin, Herman Van Rompuy admitted they had "divergent assessments" of the situation.

But both sides agreed the peace plan negotiated by the UN and Arab League envoy, Kofi Annan, was the best way to "break the cycle of violence in Syria, avoiding a civil war", Mr Van Rompuy added. "We need to combine our efforts in order for this to happen, and to find common messages on which we agree. We need to work towards an immediate stop of all forms of violence in Syria."

Troops 'vulnerable'

Mr Van Rompuy's call came as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said it had confirmed with local doctors that at least 80 soldiers had been killed in clashes with Free Syrian Army fighters over the weekend.

Herman Van Rompuy said the EU and Russia both back the Annan plan

At least 19 soldiers, eight rebels and 19 civilians were killed in violence on Sunday, the UK-based group added.

Another 89 were killed on Saturday, including 57 soldiers, which the SOHR said was the largest number of fatalities the military had suffered in a single day since the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.

SOHR head Sami Abdul Rahman told AFP news agency that there had been a sharp increase in the number of clashes between the army and rebels over the weekend. "Troops are vulnerable to heavy losses because they are not trained for street battles and are therefore exposed to attacks," he said. "What exacerbates those losses is that the army is fighting locals of those towns and villages... who know the area inside and out and enjoy public support," he added.

Mr Abdul Rahman said rebels had targeted military vehicles advancing on towns and villages, firing automatic weapons and throwing grenades.

Overnight, there were clashes in the Idlib province, as security forces used tanks, rocket launchers and artillery to bombard the towns of Kafr Nabal, Maarat al-Numan, Ariha and Rama, according to the main opposition coalition, the Syrian National Council.

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