The apparently coordinated attack demonstrated insurgents remain a potent force despite US and Iraqi claims that the terror network is on the run.
At least 10 car bombs and roadside attacks struck the capital, according to Iraqi police. No suicide bombings — an Al-Qaeda trademark — were reported but Iraqi authorities were quick to blame the network.
The deadliest attack took place near the Baghdad headquarters of anti-US cleric Moqtada Sadr in the vast slum of Sadr City as Friday prayers were ending at about 1:30 p.m. At least two car bombs exploded a few hundred yards from the compound, ripping through the area as men prayed in the street outside the mosque. As people fled the scene, at least two more bombs exploded in a parking lot where many had left their vehicles.
At least 27 people were killed and an estimated 150 wounded.
Onlookers threw stones at arriving Iraqi security forces, frustrated with their apparent inability to secure the city. Iraqi troops fired their guns in the air to scatter the crowd.
The violence began shortly after the call to prayer resounded across the capital at about 11:15 a.m. with two bombs exploding in the neighborhood of Zafaraniyah, killing one person and wounding 12 people. A car bomb later killed eight people and wounded 19 near a mosque in the northern Hurriyah neighborhood, while another killed 14 and wounded 36 in the eastern neighborhood of Amin Al-Thaniyah.
The major blasts all occurred in former Shiite militia strongholds, underscoring the insurgents' aim of provoking a new round of sectarian bloodshed. In the past, such bombings would be followed by revenge militia attacks against Sunnis but the retaliatory violence ebbed after Sadr's forces were routed by US-Iraqi offensives in 2008.
Three other people were killed in scattered violence elsewhere in the capital.
Bombs also ripped through the houses of Iraqi policemen in the former insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, killing at least seven people, including a soldier trying to defuse one of the devices, authorities said.
