Baghdad ? A car bomb ripped through a crowded commercial district in a mainly Shiite town on Friday, killing at least 32 people, Iraqi officials said – the latest attack north of Baghdad where violence has been slower to decline than elsewhere in the country.

The explosion, which wounded 43 others, was apparently targeting a police station in the town of Dujail but instead badly damaged a nearby medical clinic, according to police. Concrete barriers largely protected the police station, the officials said.

The blast took place about 50 yards from the police station in an area packed with shoppers preparing for Iftar, the daily meal at which Muslims break their sunrise-to-sunset fast during the holy month of Ramadan.