A suspect car bombing rocked the Iraqi city of Hilla, south of Baghdad, late Saturday, killing 32 people and wounding 22 others, the Arab satellite news channel al-Jazeera reported.

The Qatar-based channel said that the bomb also caused substantial damage, including the destruction of 10 cars.

Earlier, the US military said the car bombing killed 17 people and injured 40 others.

The blast, caused by an improvised explosive device and "possibly a vehicle born," took place around 8:45 p.m. (1645 GMT), a US military spokesman explained when he read the statement.

He couldn't confirm what was the target of the bomb attack.

Hilla, 100 km south of Baghdad, was under control of a Polish-led multinational force.

The incident came when the official return of Iraqi sovereignty due on June 30 was only four days away.

A new wave of violence has spread over the country in the run-up of the power handover.

A series of apparently coordinated attacks targeting Iraqi police and pro-US parties killed over 100 and injured 300 in the past two days.

US senior spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said on Saturday that more attacks were expected in the next few days before or after the handover.

Source: Xinhua