Twin suicide bombings killed 31 people after midday prayers at a religious center in north Baghdad on Tuesday, and left 57 others wounded.

Twin suicide bombings killed 31 people after midday prayers at a religious center in Cairo neighborhood north of Baghdad on Tuesday, and left 57 others wounded.

Several students from an adjacent university were among the dead, with dozens of others wounded, while security forces shut down the neighborhood to vehicle traffic and sought to defuse a suspected car bomb nearby.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but militants linked to Al-Qaeda frequently carry out suicide bombings.

Tuesday's attacks struck at the Habib ibn al-Mudhaher husseiniyah, a religious hall in north Baghdad. It lies next to the Imam al-Sadiq (as) university, a private teaching institution.

Many victims were university students who were taking a break from studying for their exams to pray.

According to witnesses and officials, the bombers, who were dressed in suits, began by gunning down the building's guard, followed by the first attacker blowing himself up at the entrance to the hall.

The second militant took advantage of the ensuing chaos and ran through the crowd before setting off his explosives inside the husseiniyah itself.

Soldiers standing guard at the scene said the inside of the building was covered in blood, with the walls and ceiling badly damaged by ball bearings, used by the suicide bombers to maximize the bloodshed.

Meanwhile, bombings elsewhere in Baghdad and north of the capital in Salaheddin province killed two people and wounded six.

There has been a heightened level of unrest since the beginning of the year in Iraq, coinciding with protests erupted in late December.