BAGHDAD, June 1 (Xinhua) -- A bomb explosion at a wholesale vegetable market in southern Baghdad early Monday killed four people and wounded 13 others, an Interior Ministry source said.

    An explosive charge detonated early in the morning at the al-Rasheed wholesale market in Baghdad's southern district of Doura, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    The bomb was hidden in a shop in the busy market, where dozens of merchants and grocers gather to buy and sell vegetables that usually brought in the early morning from countryside, the source said.

    The blast destroyed the shop and caused damages to several nearby stalls and civilian vehicles, while Iraqi security forces sealed off the area to secure the scene, the source added.

    It was the second such deadly attack that struck al-Rasheed wholesale market in less than a month when a truck bomb exploded on May 6, killing 11 people and injuring 37 others.

    Despite dramatic drop in violence over the last two years, Baghdad is among some Iraqi cities that sporadically witness deadly attacks.

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