MOSUL: Four civilians were killed and 35 people injured on Saturday by a car bomb in a Shiite district in the restive Iraqi city of Mosul, a police officer told AFP.

The bomb exploded in Cokjili neighbourhood, eastern Mosul, according to the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The blast happened less than two weeks after US forces withdrew from Iraq's urban centres on June 30 under a security pact signed by Baghdad and Washington last November.

Violence has dropped markedly throughout Iraq in recent months, but attacks remain common, especially in Baghdad and Mosul in the north.