BAGHDAD: A string of bomb attacks targeting Shia Muslim worshippers as they emerged from mosques across Baghdad on Friday killed 27 people and wounded more than 50, security officials said.

The six apparently coordinated blasts occurred outside mosques and prayer centres in and around the capital, including one frequented by followers of radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, they said.

The worst attack was in the northeastern Baghdad district of Al-Shaab, where a car bomb killed 21 people and injured 35 others, an interior ministry official said.

In twin bombings at Diyala bridge, 10 kilometres south of Baghdad, four people were killed and seven wounded.

Attacks in Zafaraniyah and Kamaliyah neighbourhoods killed one person each and left six and three people wounded respectively. A separate attack in Al-Elam in western Baghdad injured four.

Violence has dropped markedly throughout Iraq in recent months, but attacks increased in the run-up to the US military pullback a month ago from urban centres, with 437 Iraqis killed in June, the highest death toll in 11 months.

Attacks remain particularly common in the capital Baghdad and the restive northern city of Mosul. -AFP