Car bombs kill 39 in Iraqi capital Baghdad

Ten car-bomb explosions killedat least 39 people across the Iraqi capital on Monday, policeand medical sources said.

In the central district of Karada, two parked car bombs wentoff killing at least eight people, and another two car bombsexploded simultaneously near a market in the western district ofJihad, killing eight.

Violence has been increasing in Iraq in recent months, withmore than 1,000 people killed in May alone, making it thedeadliest month since the sectarian bloodletting of 2006-07.

Insurgents including al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate have beenregaining ground and recruits from the country's Sunni minority,which feels sidelined since the U.S.-led invasion toppled formerdictator Saddam Hussein and empowered majority Shi'ites.

Sectarian tensions in Iraq and the wider region have beeninflamed by the civil war in Syria, where mainly Sunni Muslimrebels are fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad,whose Alawite sect derives from Shi'ite Islam.