At least 30 people were martyred and many others were injured in multiple attacks that rocked Iraq late on Monday.

At least 30 people were martyred and many others were injured in multiple attacks that rocked Iraq late on Monday.

An attack claimed by the Takfiri group, ISIL (so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Levant) and involving suicide explosions, gunfights and hostage-taking wreaked chaos in the eastern neighborhood of Baghdad al-Jadida.

"A car came... gunmen came out of it and spread out. They started shooting, killing people, there were lots of dead people," said a witness, Salman Hussein.

The head of Baghdad Operations Command, Lieutenant General Abdelamir al-Shammari, insisted to reporters on the scene that the situation was quickly brought under control.

He denied reports by several officials in the Baghdad police and in the interior ministry that the attackers held several people hostage in the nearby Zahrat Baghdad mall.

A statement posted by the Takfiris online provided few details. It said the attack was carried out by "four soldiers of the caliphate" and targeted Shiites.

It said one of the ISIL members blew himself up in an explosives-laden vehicle when "the apostates sent reinforcements".

Police and hospital sources put the casualty toll from the attack, one of the worst to hit Baghdad in months, at 12 dead and more than 30 wounded.

Almost simultaneously, bombings killed at least 20 people at a cafe in the town of Muqdadiyah northeast of Baghdad, security officers said.

A bomb exploded at the cafe and a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle after people gathered at the scene, a police captain and an army colonel said.

ISIL also claimed the Muqdadiyah attack and named the suicide bomber as Iraqi Abu Abdallah.