At least 27 killed across Iraq in latest wave of violence

A double bombing at a market and other attacks across Iraq killed at least 27 people on Monday, officials said. On Sunday, at least 10 others were killed in an attack in the northern city of Tuz Khurmatu.

It’s the latest in a long period of violence in the country.

Twin explosions went off shortly after sunset at the entrance of an outdoor market in downtown Baghdad, killing 16 shoppers and wounding 35 others, police officials said.  

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but bombings in public places are the hallmark of Al-Qaeda's Iraq branch, which is trying to destabilize the Shia-led government.

A little later in the night, three civilians and a policeman were killed and 30 others were wounded when a roadside blast hit a passing police car on a crowded commercial street in the northern city of Mosul, said local police and hospital officials.

In southern Baghdad, three policemen and a civilian were killed and four other policemen wounded when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a police checkpoint at noon.

Also, gunmen killed a Justice Ministry employee in a drive-by-shooting as he was driving home from work in Baiyaa district in western Baghdad.

In a fifth attack, earlier in the day, a roadside bomb struck a car carrying two anti-Al-Qaeda Sunni militiamen in Baghdad's northeastern suburb of Husseiniyah, killing them both.

The militia, known as the Sahwa, joined forces with U.S. troops at the height of the Iraq war to fight Al-Qaeda.

Today's attacks bring the death toll across the country this month to at least 360, according to an Associated Press count, though many deaths may go unreported.

Violence in Iraq spiked in April after security forces cracked down on a Sunni protest camp, although monthly death tolls remain lower than at the height of the violence in 2004-2008.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press