At least 26 people have died and scores injured in 10 car bomb attacks in central Iraq, including five in Baghdad.

The blasts on Tuesday in the Iraqi capital hit three different areas, killing at least nine people, officials told Al Jazeera. Officials also told Al Jazeera that at least 53 people were wounded as a result of the attacks.

Bayaa, in south Baghdad, was hit by two car bombs which killed at least three people and injured 10 others.

Four more car bombs exploded in Hilla, south of Baghdad, killing 17 people and wounding 43.

In a separate attack, 13 soldiers were reported killed in a battle with Sunni fighters in Fallujah in Anbar province.

The attacks came a day after a series of explosions in the capital left at least 23 dead and 94 injured. Those attacks on Monday occurred shortly after sunset and targeted crowded commercial areas near Shia mosques.

Violence in Iraq has reached a level not seen since 2008, when it was emerging from a brutal period of sectarian killings that claimed tens of thousands of lives.

And all of one major city and parts of another in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, have been held by anti-government fighters for weeks.

Attacks and clashes have killed more than 470 people so far this month and more than 1,450 since the start of the year, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.