Twenty people were killed and more than 70 others wounded when a Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad was hit by three successive bombings late Sunday evening, a police source told Xinhua.

The first explosion occurred at about 7:00 p.m. (1500 GMT) when a rocket struck a building in a market in southern Baghdad district of Zaafaraniya, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Several minutes later, a car bomb near the building exploded, the source added.

A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in the same area went off minutes later, the source said.

The upsurge of violence in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities is seen as a major setback for the Iraqi government's efforts to achieve security.

Source: Xinhua