At least 44 people were killed and 123 others wounded in separate violent attacks across Iraq on Monday, including a wave of deadly bombings in the capital city of Baghdad, police and Interior Ministry officials said.

The car bomb and roadside bomb attacks in Baghdad on Monday evening left at least 30 people dead and 106 others injured, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The deadliest attack occurred when a car bomb and a roadside bomb exploded simultaneously in the Husseiniya area in northern Baghdad, killing eight people and injuring 30 others, he said.

At least five people were killed and 16 others wounded when a car bomb went off in the Zafaraniyah area in southeastern Baghdad, the source said, adding that a car bomb in the Dora district in southern Baghdad killed five people and wounded 14 others.

A car bomb parked on the side of a road in the Aalam neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad exploded on Monday evening, killing three people and wounding 11 others, while a roadside bomb went off in the Camp Sara area in eastern Baghdad, killing three people and injuring eight others, the police source said.

Two people were killed and 10 others wounded when a car bomb exploded in Tayaran Square in central Baghdad, he said, adding that a man was killed and seven others were wounded when a car bomb went off in the al-Obeidi area in eastern Baghdad.

Also on Monday evening, a car bomb exploded in the Saidiya area in southwestern Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 10 others, the police source said.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the al-Qaida front in Iraq, in most cases, was responsible for such massive attacks, raising fears that the terrorist group and other militia could return to widespread violence, particularly as Iraq is trying to fend off the spillover of the escalating violence in neighboring Syria.

Earlier in the day, up to 14 people were killed and 17 others wounded in separate attacks across the country, Interior Ministry and police sources said.

A roadside bomb went off at a checkpoint manned by members of a government-backed Sahwa paramilitary group at al-Mashahda area, some 30 km north of Baghdad, killing four group members and wounding five others, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Two more Sahwa fighters were killed and three wounded in a separate bomb explosion at their checkpoint at a village near the town of Madain, some 30 km southeast of Baghdad, the source said.

The Sahwa militia, also known as the Awakening Council or the Sons of Iraq, consists of armed groups, including some powerful anti-U.S. Sunni insurgent groups, who turned their rifles against the al-Qaida network after Sahwa's leaders became dismayed by al- Qaida's brutality and religious zealotry in the country.

Meanwhile, two soldiers were killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their patrol in Garmah area, just east of the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, a local police source anonymously told Xinhua.

In northern Iraq, a roadside bomb went off near an army patrol in Mahlabiyah area in west of Mosul city, about 400 km north of Baghdad, killing four soldiers and wounding two, a police source from Mosul told Xinhua.

In a separate incident, a policeman was killed and three wounded in a roadside bomb attack on their patrol in the western part of Mosul, the source said.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, unidentified gunmen using silenced weapons shot dead an intelligence officer while he was driving his car at a village near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Also in the province, a farmer was wounded by gunmen in a rural area near the town of Abbara, some 15 km northeast of Baquba, the source said.

Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years, which raises fears that the country is sliding back to the full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq has said that almost 6,000 civilians were killed and over 14,000 others injured in Iraq from January to September this year. E

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