BAGHDAD -- Attacks across Iraq on Monday targeted commercial areas and Iraqi security forces, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, officials said.
The deadliest attack was in the southern Shiite city of Najaf, about 160 kilometres south of Baghdad, where a parked car bomb ripped through a commercial area, killing six people, said Maj. Gen. Emad al-Taie. That attack also wounded 13 people, said al-Taie, the provincial police chief.
Iraq is going through its worst surge in violence since the peak of the sectarian strife in 2006 and 2007, when the country was on the brink of civil war. The UN says 8,868 people were killed in 2013.
On Sunday, the UN mission in Iraq announced that May was the deadliest month so far this year, with 799 Iraqis killed in violence, including 603 civilians. UNAMI also said that April's death toll stood at 750, making it the second deadliest month this year.
In other attacks Monday, a suicide car bomber struck an army checkpoint in the northern town Mishahda, 30 kilometres north of the Iraqi capital, killing three soldiers and two civilians, a police officer said. The officer added that 14 people were wounded in that attack.
In a commercial area in the town of Iskandariyah, 50 kilometres south of Baghdad, two people were killed and 10 were wounded in a parked car bombing, another police officer said.
A car bomb also hit in the southern city of Nasiriyah, killing one civilian and wounding 18, while one person died and three were wounded in a bombing at an outdoor market in the town Mahmoudiyah, 30 kilometres south of Baghdad.
Medical officials confirmed causality figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.
Associated Press writer Murtada Faraj contributed to this report from Baghdad.
