Isis suicide bomber detonates car in Shia district of Baghdad in latest terror attack in Iraq

At lst nine people were killed but officials feared the death toll would rise

The bombing (not pictured) struck near the scene of another attack that killed more than 300 victims in July (REUTERS)

At least nine people have been killed in a car bombing claimed by Isis in Baghdad as the group continues its bloody insurgency.

A suicide bomber targeted a Shia Muslims in the Iraqi capital's Karrada district on Monday evening, detonating a vehicle laden with explosives near a hospital.

Witnesses said the blast hit near the site of another attack by the so-called Islamic State that killed 324 people in July in one of the deadliest atrocities since the start of the Iraq war in 2003.

Isis' propaganda agency said it targeted a "group of Shiites [Shias]" - a faction of Muslims the Sunni terrorist group regards as apostates.

Hospital sources said 20 people were also wounded in the blast and there were fears the death toll could rise as recovery operations continued.

The fight against Isis, which seized a third of Iraq's territory in 2014, comes amid a long-running sectarian conflict in Iraq, mostly between the Shia majority and Sunni minority.

The group has been driven out of all but one of its city strongholds in the country and security forces backed by Shia militas and air strikes by the US-led coalition are soon expected to launch an offensive on Mosul.

In neighbouring Syria on Monday, Isis claimed responsibility for four bombs that killed more than 40 people in the government-controlled cities of Tartous, Homs, Damascus countryside, as well as the Kurdish stronghold of Hasakah.

Analysts have described car bombings as one of the terrorist group’s most tried tactics to regain momentum, aiming to inflict mass casualties, kill as many Shia as possible, provoke fear and unrest and turn all factions against the Iraqi government.

Additional reporting by agencies