IS militants have frequently bombed Shia areas and
government targets as part of their campaign to destabilise the Shia-led
government in Baghdad
At least 63 people have been killed in a series of car bomb attacks in Iraq, police and medical sources say.
One
of the largest bombs was in the Shia-majority town of Khalis in the
eastern province of Diyala, where at least 40 people were killed.
Another
attack in the town of al-Zubair, about 15km (9 miles) south-west of the
oil town of Basra, is reported to have killed at least 10 people.
A third bomb in Baghdad killed at least 13 people, police said.
At
least 25 others were wounded in the blast in the capital's
north-eastern neighbourhood of Husseiniya, according to Associated
Press.
While Islamic State (IS) militants said they carried
out the blast near Basra, no group has so far claimed responsibility
for the other attacks.
However IS militants have frequently bombed
Shia areas and government targets as part of their campaign to
destabilise the Shia-led government in Baghdad.
The militants see Shias as heretics.
The
bombing in Basra comes as a surprise, correspondents say, because it is
predominantly Shia - which makes it harder for Sunni jihadist groups to
carry out attacks in the same way they do in Baghdad and other parts of
the country.
The latest violence follows news on Sunday that the
heavily-fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad was open to everyone for
the for the first time in 12 years
The two other car bombs went off in areas north of Baghdad that are regularly targeted by jihadists, correspondents say.
The
blast in a market area of Khalis, around 55km (35 miles) from the
capital, took place in a religiously and ethnically divided province
that IS partly captured last year. The government said that Diyala was
liberated in January.
While the jihadists no longer have fixed
positions in the province, correspondents say, they have continued their
tactic of planting car bombs and carrying out suicide operations and
hit-and-run attacks in the area.
According to UN figures, 717
Iraqis were killed and 1,216 wounded in acts of terrorism, violence and
armed conflict in September.
Title : Iraq violence: More than 60 people killed in bombings
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