The two blasts occurred within minutes of each other, both of them involving explosives-laden cars in central Baghdad's Karrada neighbourhood, one on a road and the other targeting a passing police patrol.

At least 12 people, including three policemen, were killed and another 38 including women were wounded in the attacks, security officials and a medic at the capital's Ibn Nafis hospital said.

Later, a third car bomb rocked an area near Baghdad's so-called Green Zone, a US-controlled part of the war-torn capital, killing one person and wounding another three.

Iraqi security officials said the bomb exploded just 400 metres (yards) from the heavily fortified zone, which houses the US and British embassies, and the Iraqi parliament.

"The car exploded outside a restaurant on the road leading to the zone. At least one person is killed and three wounded," a security official said, adding several shops were damaged.