Bombings across Iraq kill at least 66

A wave of car bombs struck Shia neighborhoods of Baghdad and a suicide bomber targeted soldiers in a northern city in attacks that killed at least 66 people across the country on Sunday, officials said.

Coordinated bombings killing scores of people have hit Iraq multiple times each month in the past half-year, a spike in bloodshed that has claimed more than 5,000 lives since April. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday's blasts.

Four police officers said that the bombs in the capital, placed in parked cars and detonated over half an hour, targeted commercial areas and parking lots, killing 42.

Meanwhile, in the northern city of Mosul, a suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden car into a group of soldiers as they were sealing off a street leading to a bank where troops were receiving salaries. The attack killed 14 including five civilians, a police officer said. At least 30 people were wounded, he said. Mosul, which has been an insurgent stronghold in the past, is located about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

While no one claimed responsibility, such systematic attacks are a favorite tactic of Al-Qaeda's local branch. It frequently targets civilians in markets, cafes and commercial streets in Shia areas in an attempt to undermine confidence in the government, as well as members of the security forces.

In Baghdad’s Mashtal neighborhood, police and army personnel sealed off the scene as ambulances rushed in to pick up the wounded. The force of the explosion damaged a number of cars and shops. In the Shaab neighborhood, a crane lifted away at least 12 charred cars as cleaners swept away debris.

The pace of killings in the latest surge of violence in Iraq has reached levels unseen since 2008. Today's blasts bring the death toll across the country in October to 555, according to an Associated Press count.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press