Bomb attacks kill 52 in Baghdad and Baquba

 A series of bomb attacks on Wednesday targeted areas within the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and a village near the northern town of Baquba killing at least 52 people and injuring dozens more, police and hospital sources said, according to Agence France-Presse.

In Baghdad, half a dozen attacks struck two majority-Shiite neighborhoods and two confessionally-mixed districts, officials said.

Wednesday’s bombing in the capital took place in the northern neighborhood of Shula, where a parked car bomb exploded in an outdoor market, killing five shoppers and wounding 12.

Another car bomb in the commercial area of central Karrada area killed four civilians and wounded 14, police said.

Police also said that three civilians were killed and eight were wounded by a bomb in another market in the eastern Maamil area.

The violence occurred amid a continuing standoff between the Iraqi army and Sunni militants who overran the city of Falluja west of Baghdad more than two weeks ago in a challenge to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government.

Iraq remains gripped by violence as al-Qaeda-linked fighters took control of two cities in Anbar province, west of Baghdad. (Al Arabiya)