Car bombing leaves at least eight people dead during morning rush hour near Iraqi capital’s diplomatic area.

A suicide car bomber has killed at least eight people, including three security officers, and wounded an MP in an attack close to an entrance to Baghdad’s heavily guarded Green Zone, officials say.

Monday blast took place in the morning rush hour near the Iraqi capital’s July 14th suspension bridge which leads into the zone, an area housing many government offices and diplomatic missions, including the US embassy.

“I was on my way to enter the Green Zone when the blast happened,” Habib al-Turfi, a Shia member of parliament, told the Reuters news agency by telephone. “I was wounded in my shoulder and I’m in hospital now.”

“Cars were lining up waiting to be searched at the checkpoint that leads to the Green Zone and suddenly a speeding

car exploded nearby,” said

A police source whose patrol was stationed near the scene of the attack said: “Some people died inside cars and I saw two soldiers lying on the ground.”

“We immediately closed the area,” said the source who declined to be named

Another 11 people, including Turfi’s bodyguard, were wounded in the attack.

The last attacks in Baghdad occurred on September 9 when a series of bombs in mainly Shia Muslim districts ended one of the bloodiest days of the year, on which more than 100 were killed across the country.

About 164 Iraqis were killed in August, according to government figures.