Attacks across Iraq killed 38 people on Wednesday, the latest in a months-long surge in violence that has left more than 4,000 people dead this year.

Attacks across Iraq killed 14 people on Wednesday, the latest in a months-long surge in violence that has left more than 4,000 people dead this year.

The shootings and bombings struck in Baghdad and restive parts of the north and west, leaving dozens more wounded, security and medical officials said.

In the deadliest attack, a suicide car bomb exploded in the mainly Shiite neighborhood of Kadhimiyah in north Baghdad, killing at least 16 people and wounding 50, security and medical officials said.

Three other car bombs went off in the Amin, Sadr City and Jihad districts, killing eight more people.

The blasts were the latest in a trend of militants setting off vehicles rigged with explosives during the evening, when Baghdad's residents visit markets, restaurants and cafes.

Previously, such attacks had typically been timed to go off during morning rush hour.

Elsewhere in and around the capital, gun attacks and explosions killed three people, officials said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but Sunni militants including those linked to the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant often set off coordinated bombings across Baghdad, ostensibly in a bid to sow instability.

Meanwhile in north Iraq, a series of 11 bombings in the ethnically mixed town of Tuz Khurmatu killed five people, four of them members of the same family, and wounded 11.

The blasts targeted homes belonging to ethnic Turkmen.

The town, which is also populated by Arabs and Kurds, lies in a stretch of territory Kurdish leaders want to incorporate into their autonomous region over Baghdad's objections.