A wave of car bombings and other attacks in Iraq killed at least 53 people on Sunday. The recent increase in violence, the worst since 2008, has raised fears that the country is returning to the level of killing that pushed it to the brink of civil war after the 2003 US-led invasion. More than 4,000 people have died since the start of April, including 804 just in August, according to the UN.

Sunday's deadliest attack was in the city of Hilla, 60 miles south of Baghdad, where a car bomb near an outdoor market killed nine and wounded 15, a police officer said. A few minutes later, another car bomb went off nearby, killing six and wounding 14.

In the nearby town of Iskandariya, 30 miles south of the capital, a bomb went off in a car park, killing four and wounding nine, police said. Another car bomb went off in an industrial area of the Shia city of Kerbala, killing five and wounding 25, a police officer said. Kerbala is 50 miles south of Baghdad. In the aftermath, security officials inspected burnt-out cars in front of what appeared to be a smashed row of workshops.

In Kut, another Shia-dominated city 100 miles south-east of Baghdad, a car bomb targeted construction workers and food stalls, killing two and wounding 14, another provincial police officer said.

Seven more civilians were killed and 31 others were wounded when four separate car bombs ripped through the towns of Suwayra and Hafriya outside Kut, police said.

In Baghdad's northern Sunni-dominated Azamiya neighbourhood, a car bomb that exploded near the convoy of the head of Baghdad's provincial council killed three and wounded eight, police say. The council head escaped unharmed.

Two other car bombs hit the southern cities of Basra and Nassiriya, killing eight civilians and wounding 26, two police officers said. And two more civilians were killed when a bomb hit a police patrol in Baghdad's Sunni western suburb of Abu Ghraib. Nine other people were wounded.

To the north-east of Baghdad, gunmen broke into a farm in the village of Abu Sayda and killed three Sunni farmers, police said

No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts, which targeted commercial areas and parking lots in seven cities. But systematically organized waves of bombings are often used by al-Qaida's local branch, known as the Islamic State of Iraq, to undermine confidence in the Shiite-led government.

Sometimes insurgents launch multiple attacks for two or more days in a row. On Saturday, 27 people were killed in suicide attacks, bombings and shootings.

In the afternoon, police found the bodies of four Sunni men killed with gunshots to the head. The men, all relatives, were kidnapped early Sunday by gunmen who stormed their house in Baghdad's southern Youssifiya suburb.

Eleven medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All spoke anonymously as they weren't authorised to release information.

________