BAGHDAD, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 80 people were killed and 20 others wounded on Thursday in a car bomb blast at a fuel station in Babil province in south of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, a police source said.

The attack occurred in the afternoon when a booby-trapped car detonated at a fuel station in the town of Shomali in east of the provincial capital city of Hillah, some 100 km south of Baghdad, destroying several nearby vehicles, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

A bus carrying Iranian Shiite pilgrims was also destroyed by the blast, the source said, adding that Iranian pilgrims were among the casualties.

Terrorist acts, violence and armed conflicts killed 1,792 Iraqis and wounded 1,358 others in October across Iraq, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq said.

Many blame the current chronic instability, cycle of violence, and the emergence of extremist groups, such as the Islamic States, on the U.S., which invaded and occupied Iraq in March 2003.