A car bomb exploded Tuesday in an area for car dealerships in the Iraqi capital, killing at least three people and wounding 14, police said.

The morning blast happened in the Al-Nahda neighbourhood in the centre of Baghdad, which has already been hit by several deadly bombings this year, a police colonel said.

"These cars were exploding one after the other because of the fuel tanks," Jihad Karim, an eyewitness, told AFP on the scene.

He said that the man who brought the explosives-laden car did not arouse suspicion when he left it among the vehicles because he had come to the same dealership for several days running.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing.

Most such attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State group, which is fighting to defend Mosul, Iraq's large northern city and the jihadists' last major stronghold in the country.

Ziad al-Ajili, head of the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, said that two reporters for the local NRT channel were beaten by the security forces on the scene.

Ajili said men from the army's 11th division physically assaulted the pair with rifle butts and confiscated their equipment. Both reporters were hospitalised.