The baby boy's father was also seriously wounded in the attack not far from a holy Shiite shrine in the Kadhimiyah neighbourhood of northern Baghdad, police and witnesses said.

The bombing came on the heels of six car bomb blasts that killed 34 people in mainly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Monday, rocking the capital's fragile peace in what the US military said appeared to be coordinated Al-Qaeda attacks.

Eight people were killed and another 20 were wounded in Tuesday's blast.

The baby, aged about six months, and his parents were in a car stuck in traffic on Nuwab Street, a crowded commercial road that leads to the holy Shiite shrine of Kadhimiyah when the bomb went off around midday.

"We managed to take him out of the car, he had bruises and was covered with his mother's blood," said Sadiq al-Maliki, a 36-year-old mechanic who helped some of the victims, adding that the mother was definitely dead.

"We also put out the fire burning his father's clothes and he was taken to the hospital."

A policeman told AFP the father had suffered serious burns and was in critical condition.

Raad Sabeeh Razal, who was standing on the street after the explosion, was handed the baby by police and asked to take care of him.

"The baby was crying, my wife fed him, and he is in a good condition. He is now smiling and does not seemed to be shocked," he told AFP in his home located on an alley near the blast site.

"The police don't know his father's name, or their relatives, because all their identity cards were burned," he said as he held the smiling child.

"I will take care of him until we find out who his family. He is a victim."

Cars around the blast zone were set ablaze but damaged to neighbouring store fronts was limited.

Monday's string of attacks killed at least 34 people and wounded nearly 140 more, recalling some of the worst post-Saddam violence in the capital.

The unrest followed deadly clashes in Baghdad between Iraqi troops and former Sunni insurgents now turned anti-Qaeda militants, following the arrest of their leader on criminal charges.

The US military has however ruled out any involvement in the attacks by disaffected members of the Sunni militias known as Sahwa and laid the blame on Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Security in Iraq has improved dramatically since 2007, when Iraqi and US forces launched offensives against Al-Qaeda with the help of local US-financed and US-trained militias.

However, insurgents are still able to strike with deadly consequences. A total of 252 Iraqis were killed in violence in March, almost the same level as the previous month but up from January, when 191 Iraqis died.

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