BAGHDAD, May 17: Bombs struck Sunni localities in Baghdad and surrounding areas on Friday, killing at least 76 people in the deadliest day in Iraq in more than eight months, officials said, as a spike in violence has raised fears the country could be on the path to a new round of sectarian bloodshed.

The attacks in Baghdad and surrounding areas pushed the three-day Iraqi death toll to 130, including Shias at bus stops and outdoor markets in scenes reminiscent of the retaliatory attacks between the religious sects that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-2007.

Tensions have been intensifying since Sunnis began protesting what they say is mistreatment at the hands of the Shia-led government, including random detentions and neglect. The protests, which began in December, have largely been peaceful, but the number of attacks rose sharply after a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in the country’s north on April 23.

Majority Shias control the levers of power in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. An increase in attacks against Sunni mosques has fed concerns about a return to retaliatory warfare.

The deadliest blast on Friday struck worshippers as they were leaving the main Sunni mosque in Baquba, a former Sunni stronghold 60 kilometres northeast of Baghdad. Another explosion went off shortly afterward as people gathered to help the wounded, leaving at least 41 dead and 56 wounded, according to police and hospital officials. Bloodied bodies were strewn across the road outside the mosque.

Grocery store owner Hassan Alwan was among the worshippers who attended the Friday prayer in the al-Sariya mosque. He said he was getting ready to leave after Friday prayers when he heard the explosion, followed a few minutes later by another.

“We rushed into the street and saw people who were killed and wounded, and other worshippers asking for help,” he said. “I do not where the country is headed amid these attacks against both Sunnis and Shias in Iraq.”

Baquba was the site of some of the fiercest fighting between invading US forces and Al Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni militants during the US-led occupation of Iraq.

Later on Friday, a roadside bomb exploded during a Sunni funeral procession in Madain, about 20 kilometres south of Baghdad, killing eight mourners and wounding 11, police said.Two medical officials confirmed the casualties.

Another explosion struck a cafe in Fallujah, 65 kilometres west of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding nine, according to police and hospital officials.

In Baghdad, a bomb exploded near a shopping centre during evening rush hour in the mainly Sunni neighbourhood of Amariyah, killing 21 people and wounding 32. That was followed by another bomb in a commercial district in Dora, another Sunni neighbourhood, which killed four people and wounded 22, according to officials.—AP