A car bomb exploded in a commercial district of central Baghdad on Thursday, killing 11 people and wounding 57, police said.

The bombing took place off a bridge in Tahrir Square, a district of clothing shops just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the US Embassy and much of the Iraqi government.

The attack is the latest in a string of violence to grip Iraq’s capital after several months of relative calm that followed a surge of US forces last year.

The US military on Thursday also said soldiers had killed a young Iraqi girl after firing a warning shot at a woman who “appeared to be signaling to someone” along a road where several bombs had recently been found.