Car bombings kill at least 23 in Iraq

At least 23 people were killed and more than 142 wounded early Monday in a series of car bombs in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and in the city of Kut southeast of the capital, police said.

The attacks occurred during the morning rush hours when ten car bombs were detonated in different districts of Baghdad, killing at least 19 people and wounding 117 others, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, five car bombs and two roadside bombs went off in the city of Kut, some 170 km southeast of Baghdad, killing at least four people and wounding 25, a local police source told Xinhua.

The death toll could rise as ambulances, civilian and police vehicles were evacuating the victims to hospitals and medical centers in the cities.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but the al-Qaida front in Iraq, in most cases, was responsible for such violent attacks in the country.

Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in five years, raising fears that the latest bloodshed is bringing the country back to a full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when the monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.