A wave of car bombings across Baghdad's Shi'ite neighbourhoods and in the southern city of Basra killed at least 40 people on Monday, striking at market places and crowded bus stops during the busy morning hours, officials said.
The attacks are the latest in a recent spike of bombings that has hit both Sunni and Shi'ite civilian targets over the past week. The bloodshed has raised fears of a return to the widespread sectarian violence of 2006-2007 that brought the country to the edge of civil war.
In the Iraqi capital, nine car bombs went off at bus stops, open-air markets and in the streets of Shi'ite areas, killing 27 people and wounding 116, according to police officials.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
The deadliest attacks came in the northern Sabi al-Boor neighbourhood and in Baghdad's eastern suburb of Kamaliya. Seven people were killed in each of those attacks.
In the southern city of Basra, two car bombs - one near a restaurant and the other at the city's main bus station - killed at least 13 and wounded 40, according to the provincial police spokesman, Col. Abdul-Karim al-Zaidi, and the head of city's health directorate, Riadh Abdul-Amir.
The blast at the Basra bus station ripped through food stalls that serve falafel and eggs to travellers. Slippers lay scattered on the bloodstained pavement.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts but such large-scale bombings bear the hallmarks of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Hospital officials in Baghdad and Basra confirmed the casualty tolls. All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.
