Baghdad: A spate of rush hour bombs, mostly targeting Shiite-majority areas of Baghdad, killed 25 people Tuesday in the first major series of attacks to hit the capital since elections last month.
The six blasts, which struck five different areas of Baghdad during morning rush hour, also wounded at least 44 other people, the officials said.
The deadliest single attack was in the Jamila area of northern Baghdad, where a car bomb killed three people and wounded 11.
Two car bombs also exploded near a traffic police headquarters in the Baladiyat area of east Baghdad, killing a total of three people and wounding 10.
Other blasts in the northern Sadr City and Urr areas and Karrada in central Baghdad killed at least four people and wounded at least 23.
The bloodshed comes as Iraq is tallying votes from parliamentary polls, as the country suffers its worst violence since the bloody Sunni-Shiite sectarian conflict that killed tens of thousands of people in 2006-2007.
The government has blamed the unrest on external factors, including the civil war in neighbouring Syria, which has bolstered militant groups.
But analysts say that widespread anger among the country`s Sunni Arab minority, which complains of discrimination at the hands of the Shiite-led government, has also played a major role in the unrest.
