A car bomb exploded on Tuesday in a busy Shiite area of eastern Baghdad, killing at least 11 people, according to Reuters.
The incident is the latest in a series of attacks to shake the Iraqi capital, as the Shiite-led government struggles to dislodge Sunni militants from areas in the country's west and north, Reuters reported. No one has claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attacks, which bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida-inspired militants.
The explosive-laden car went off during the morning rush hour in the main commercial area of the New Baghdad district, according to Reuters. It was parked close to outdoor pet and vegetable markets and a traffic police office, a police officer said, adding that 31 people were wounded in the attack.
The bombing came a day after a wave of attacks targeted Shiite areas in several cities including Baghdad, killing at least 58 people, Reuters reported. Among them were 15 worshippers who died in a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in the same New Baghdad neighborhood where Tuesday's car bomb struck.
In online statements, the Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility for Monday's mosque attack and another in the Shiite-majority district of Utaifiya in Baghdad, where two car bombs tore through a busy commercial area near a crowded restaurant and killed at least 15 people, according to Reuters.
In two separate tweets, it took credit for car bombings in the revered Shiite city of Karbala and the nearby Hillah city south of Baghdad that together killed at least 23 people on the same day, Reuters reported. The authenticity of the statements and tweets could not be independently verified, but they were posted on a militant website and Twitter accounts frequently used by the group.
In Iraq's self-ruled northern Kurdish region, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said the militants threaten the whole region, not only Iraq, according to Reuters.
"The danger of Islamic State militants threatens the Kurdish people of Iraq and Iraqi Shiites as much as it threatens Iraqi Sunnis, other religious minorities in Iraq and all the people in this region," said Zarif, who started an official visit to Iraq on Sunday, at a joint press conference with Kurdish regional President Masoud Barzani.
