BAGHDAD: A car bomb exploded on Tuesday in a busy area in eastern Baghdad, killing as many as 15 people, officials said, the latest in a series of attacks to shake the Iraqi capital as the government struggles to dislodge militants from areas in the country’s west and north.

The explosives-laden car went off during the morning rush hour in the main commercial area of the New Baghdad district. It was parked close to outdoor pet and vegetable markets and a traffic police office, a police officer said.

The attack also wounded 31, he added. A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The bombing came a day after a wave of attacks targeted Shiite areas in several cities, including Baghdad, killing as many as 58 people. Among them were 15 worshippers who died in a suicide bombing at a mosque in the same New Baghdad neighborhood where Tuesday’s car bomb struck.

In online statements, the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for Monday’s mosque attack and another in the Utaifiya district of Baghdad, where two car bombs tore through a busy commercial area near a crowded restaurant and killed 15 people.

And in two separate tweets, it took credit for car bombings in Karbala and the nearby Hillah city south of Baghdad that together killed at least 23 people on the same day.

The authenticity of the statements and tweets could not be independently verified, but they were posted on a militant website and Twitter accounts frequently used by the group.

No one has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attacks, which bore the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda-inspired militants. In Iraq’s self-ruled northern Kurdish region, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said the militants threaten the whole region, not only Iraq.

“The danger of Islamic State militants threatens the Kurdish people of Iraq and Iraqi Shiites as much as it threatens Iraqi Sunnis, other religious minorities in Iraq and all the people in this region,” said Zarif, who started an official visit to Iraq on Sunday, at a joint press conference with Kurdish regional President Masoud Barzani.