45 killed in attacks across Iraq

At least 45 people were killed and 128 others wounded in separate attacks in central and eastern Iraq Tuesday, police said.

On Tuesday evening, a spate of car bombs struck across the national capital Baghdad, mostly-Shiite neighbourhoods, killing 36 people and wounding 121 others, Xinhua reported citing a police source.

Eight people were killed and 28 others wounded when two car bombs exploded in a popular market in Husseiniya area of northeastern Baghdad.

A car bomb exploded near a popular restaurant in Talbea area in eastern Baghdad, killing at least eight people and wounding 25 others, the source said.

Earlier, three people were killed and 10 injured in a car bomb blast in the same area, he added.

Five people killed and 16 others wounded when a car bomb exploded in a popular market in New Baghdad area.

Four people were killed and eight wounded when a car bomb exploded in Shurta neighbourhood in southwestern Baghdad.

Another car bomb explosion in Alam neighbourhood in southwestern Baghdad killed two people and wounded seven others. Almost simultaneously, two civilians were killed and six wounded when a car bomb went off in Zafaraniyah area in southeastern Baghdad.

In Karrada district, the business area of central Baghdad, one person was killed and four others were wounded when a car bomb went off.

Elsewhere, one person was killed and four others wounded when a car bomb exploded in a popular market in Abu Dsher area.

Another car bomb went off, killing one person and wounding seven others in Dora district, south of Baghdad.

One person was killed and six others were wounded when a car bomb exploded in Mameal area, southeast of Baghdad.

Also on Tuesday, unidentified gunmen broke into a house before dawn in the suburb of Arab Jubour in southern Baghdad and shot dead a man, his wife and their three sons, an interior ministry source said.

Two people were killed by gunmen in Doura district in southern Baghdad, the source said.

A car bomb at a parking lot detonated in Jbala town, some 40 km south of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding four others, a police source said.

Jbala is part of the restive area, dubbed 'Triangle of Death', which is a hotbed of insurgency against the US troops and Iraqi security forces. The town is one of a cluster of Sunni towns scattered north of Babil's provincial capital city of Hilla, about 100 km south of Baghdad.

In Iraq's Diyala province, a bomb attached to a civilian car went off in Maqdadiya city, some 100 km northeast of Baghdad, wounding three people aboard, two of whom were off-duty policemen, a police source said.

The monthly death toll from violence of Iraq in August was 841, according to a statement released by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq Sunday.

Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years, which raises fears that the country is sliding back to full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.