A suicide bomber has killed as many as 40 people and wounded 34 outside a college in Baghdad, Iraqi police said.

 

Reports said the bomber blew himself up outside the Economy and Administration College in the eastern part of the city after guards prevented him from entering the college grounds.

Earlier, at least one person was killed and eight injured in a car bomb attack near the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad.

 

The blast was only 50 metres from the Iranian embassy, although the authorities said they did not believe that the building was the intended target.

 

It was not clear whether the Green Zone blast was intended as a signal to the Iranians.

 

The explosion ripped through the street at 08:45 am (0545 GMT) during the busiest period of the morning rush hour, when nearby roads were packed with motorists and pedestrians heading for work, many in nearby Iraqi ministries.

 

Khalil Saadati, an Iranian diplomat, said: "It was close to the embassy, but we weren't the target."

 

On Saturday, a fuel tanker rigged with explosives killed 40 people when it blew up near a Sunni mosque in western Iraq .

 

The blast came a day after the mosque's imam had criticised al-Qaeda fighters, police and residents said.

 

The bomb exploded in a market in the town of Habaniya in the province of Anbar, where US forces are battling armed Sunni Arab groups.

 

Local police said they believed the mosque was the target, adding that the market had been destroyed and 64 people wounded.

 

Women and children were among the dead, they said.