A car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque south of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least four Shiites and wounding 15 others, a police source said.

"A car bomb parking near the Awlad Muslim intersection in Musayab town, some 70 km south of Baghdad, blew up on Saturday afternoon, killing four people and wounding 15 others," Captain Ahmed Abdullah from Baghdad police said.

The victims in the blast were believed to be Shiite pilgrims visiting the mainly Shiite Musayab town, he added.

The explosion came just one day after three suicide bombers killed up to 79 people and wounded more than 160 others in the Shiite mosque of Buratha in Baghdad.

The blasts have further stoked soaring sectarian violence touched off by the Feb. 22 bombing of a major Shiite mosque in the northern Iraqi town of Samarra.

The upsurge of sectarian reprisal attacks has raised fears for civil war and helped stranded the process of forming a new coalition government as Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni leaders are still bickering over the make-up of the cabinet almost four months after the December general elections.

Source: Xinhua