A series of bomb blasts across Iraq has left at least 34 people dead. 24 were massacred in a series of car bombs across the predominantly Shi’ite city of Baghdad on Monday morning.

Over 130 have been wounded in the multiple blasts, with 112 in the country’s capital, and 27 In Basra, 420 km (260 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

The nine separate car bombs struck bus stops, and market places in busy Shi’ite populated regions of Baghdad, while the two in Basra targeted a restaurant and a bus stop.

Hospital officials in Baghdad and Basra confirmed Monday morning’s casualty tolls to AP.

The bombings are the latest in a series of attacks in both Sunni and Shi’ite regions, prompting fears that widespread sectarian violence is gripping the country once more.

Over 100 have been killed in Iraq over the last week alone, with 76 people killed in a string of bombings just outside Baghdad on May 17, and explosions in the capital leaving more than 35 dead on May 15.

Across April, more than 700 people, including 595 civilians, died in Iraq “acts of terrorism,” making it the deadliest month since June 2008, the UN’s mission in the country said. The capital Baghdad has become the worst affected city.

Violence is below the heights of 2006-07, but he country’s al-Qaeda wing, alongside other Sunni Muslim insurgents, have been launching the attacks on an almost daily basis, in order to destabilize relations between the Iraq’s Sunni Muslim minority and its Shi’ite population, while seeking to undermine the power of the Shi’ite-led government.

 

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