BAGHDAD/TIKRIT, Iraq An Islamic State car bomb killed 24 people in a busy square in Baghdad's sprawling Sadr City district on Monday and the militants also temporarily cut a key road north from the Iraqi capital to Mosul, their last major stronghold in Iraq.
Islamic State stated in an online statement it had targeted a gathering of Shi'ite Muslims, whom it considers apostates. Sixty-seven people were wounded in the blast.
At least four other attacks across the city, some also claimed by Islamic State, killed nine more people, bringing the total death toll from bombings in Baghdad over the past three days to more than 60.
In addition, seven policemen were killed near the southern Iraqi city of Najaf on Sunday.
The upsurge in violence comes as U.S-backed Iraqi forces are fighting to push Islamic State from the northern city of Mosul, where the militants are putting up fierce resistance.
Islamic State stated Monday's attacks were revenge for "the repeated targeting of health institutions in Nineveh province" by the U.S.-led coalition backing Iraqi forces.
That was an apparent reference to two air strikes last month on hospitals in eastern Mosul, one where Iraqi forces were under attack and another which the U.S. military stated had targeted militants sitting in a van. At least one of the strikes may have caused civilian casualties.
Islamic State has lost most of the territory it seized in a blitz across northern and western Iraq in 2014 and ceding Mosul would probably spell the end of its self-styled caliphate. But it would still be capable of waging a guerrilla-style insurgency in Iraq and plotting or inspiring attacks on the West.
"The terrorists will attempt to attack civilians in order to make up for their losses, but we assure the Iraqi people and the world that we are able to end terrorism and shorten its life," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi stated after talks with visiting French President Francois Hollande.
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Monday's blast in Sadr City hit a square where day labourers typically gather. Nine of the victims were women in a passing minibus, whose charred bodies were visible inside the burnt-out remains of the vehicle. Blood stained the ground nearby.
A parked car bomb targeting a Sunni religious figure near a mosque in western Baghdad killed five people, and another blast close to a hospital in the centre killed one civilian and wounded nine, police and medical sources stated.
In the southeastern Zaafraniya district, two more people were killed and seven wounded when a car bomb exploded. A bomb affixed to a vehicle in the eastern area of Baladiyat killed one person and wounded four.
A service member from the international coalition fighting Islamic State was killed in a "non-combat related incident" on Monday, the U.S. military stated. It did not disclose the name, nationality or circumstances surrounding the incident but stated it was investigating.
Since the drive to recapture Mosul began on Oct. 17, elite forces have retaken a quarter of the city in the biggest ground operation in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Abadi has stated the group will be driven out of the country by April.
Clashes continued in and around Mosul on Monday. The counter-terrorism service (CTS) blew up several Islamic State car bombs before they reached their targets, and linked up with the Rapid Response forces, an elite Interior Ministry unit, stated spokesman Sabah al-Numani.
CTS was also clearing North Karama district of remaining militants, the fourth area the unit has retaken in the past week, he stated.
Islamic State targeted military positions away from the main battlefield, killing at least 16 pro-government fighters and cutting a strategic road linking Mosul to Baghdad, although authorities later stated they had regained control of it.
Militants attacked an army barracks near Baiji, 180 km (110 miles) north of the capital, killing four soldiers and wounding 12 people, including Sunni tribal fighters, army and police sources stated.
They seized weapons there and launched mortars at nearby Shirqat, forcing security forces to impose a curfew and close schools and offices in the town, according to local officials and security sources.
Shirqat mayor Ali Dodah stated Islamic State seized three checkpoints on the main road linking Baiji to Shirqat following the attacks. Shelling in Shirqat had killed at least two children, he told Reuters by phone.
In a separate incident, gunmen broke into a village near Udhaim, 90 km (56 miles) north of Baghdad, where they executed nine Sunni tribal fighters with shots to the head, police and medical sources stated.
In the same area, at least three pro-government Shi'ite militia fighters were killed and seven wounded when militants attacked their position with mortar rounds and machine guns, police sources stated.
(Additional reproting by Ahmed Rasheed and Saif Hameed in Baghdad, Isabel Coles in Erbil and Mostafa Hashem in Cairo; Writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Gareth Jones)
Reuters