A car bomb exploded yesterday along a bustling commercial street in a mostly Shi'ite area of north Baghdad, killing at least 20 people in the third major attack in the capital this month.

Recent high-profile blasts suggest that Sunni insurgents are trying to mount a comeback as the US prepares to leave Iraqi cities in three months and hand over responsibility for security in the capital to the Iraqis.

Shaken survivors voiced fears that the blast heralded a return to violence that swept the Iraqi capital before US and Iraqi forces turned the tide in late 2007.

Blew up around noon

Witnesses said the vehicle believed to be a yellow Peugeot was parked along a street near a bus stop, a food market and a hospital in the Shaab district when it blew up around noon.

The blast shattered small shops and food stalls, scattering apples, oranges and bananas in pools of blood, Associated Press Television News video showed. At a nearby hospital, doctors cleaned wounds of frightened children as they cried out in pain.

Shaab, located on the northern fringes of the city, had been a mixed area of Sunnis and Shi'ites until many Sunnis were driven out in the wave of ethnic slaughter two years ago.