At least 29 Iraqis were killed and 70 others were injured on Friday in a spate of car bombs across the country.

At least 29 Iraqis were killed and 70 others were injured on Friday in a spate of car bombs across the country.

Twin blasts minutes apart struck just after 9:00 am (0600 GMT) at a popular bird market in Baghdad's neighborhood of Kadhimiyah, an interior ministry official and a medical source said.

At least 16 people were killed and 43 others wounded in the explosions at the market, which is often crowded with visitors on Fridays, the weekly holiday in Iraq.

And in the province of Babil, two car bombs in the town of Shomali, south of Baghdad, killed 13 people and wounded 26 others, according to security and medical officials.

The violence is the latest in a spike in unrest in Iraq, which has been struck by waves of car bombs and suicide attacks in recent weeks amid a political crisis and weeks of rallies against Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.