A series of attacks in and around Baghdad, including four car bombs in several different neighborhoods, killed at least 12 people on Monday, Iraqi security and medical officials said.
Eight people were killed in the attacks, while the Iraqi authorities also reported finding the bodies of four people who were shot dead earlier on Monday and which bore signs of torture, Agence France Presse reported.
According to the officials, five people were killed in two car bomb blasts -- one of which was set off by a suicide bomber -- in the town of Mahmudiyah, which lies just south of Baghdad. Three others were killed when vehicles rigged with explosives were detonated in Baghdad's neighborhoods of Baladiyat and Hurriyah, AFP added.
In the west of the capital, Iraqi police found the bodies of three men and one woman who were apparently all killed by gunshots to the head, officials said, according to AFP.
This recent spate of Iraqi violence comes amid a long-running resurgence of sectarian-fuelled violence that left more than 1,000 dead last month, the highest such figure since April 2008, according to government data and AFP.
