Baghdad car bombs kill eight

At least eight people are dead following a series of overnight car bomb attacks in Baghdad.

At least eight people are dead following a series of car bomb attacks in Baghdad. (AAP)

A series of after dark car bombs in Baghdad have killed at least eight people.

The four blasts also left dozens more wounded, the latest in a months-long surge in bloodshed that has hit Iraq with less than two months left before national parliamentary elections.

The Saturday attacks, all car bombs targeting markets or commercial shopping areas of the Sadr City, Amil, Amin and Qahira neighbourhoods, killed eight people in all, according to police and medical sources.

More than 30 were wounded, they said.

And a gun attack on the outskirts of the confessionally mixed city of Baquba left a mother and her son dead.

More than 230 people have been killed already this month, with Iraq grappling with its worst prolonged period of violence since it emerged from a bloody sectarian war that left tens of thousands dead in 2006-07.

Analysts and diplomats have urged the country's Shi'ite-led government to reach out to the Sunni community, who allege they are mistreated by the government and security forces.

But with elections looming on April 30, political leaders have been loath to be seen to compromise.