BAGHDAD — Militants launched lethal and coordinated car bombings in Baghdad on Wednesday, killed truck drivers outside the city and detonated explosives at a funeral tent in a village during one of the deadliest outbreaks of violence in Iraq so far this year, according to health and security officials.

By day’s end, at least 64 people were dead, including residents who had been shopping in markets, soldiers on patrol and seven truck drivers who were found dead from gunshot wounds. The motive for those killings was unclear.

Iraq has seen little relief this year after 12 months of surging violence that left more than 8,000 people dead, the highest number of fatalities since 2008. The bloodshed has come as the government is consumed with a battle in the western province of Anbar against militants, including fighters linked to Al Qaeda, who have seized territory and government installations in recent weeks.

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has tried to rally Iraqis with a call to defeat what he says is foreign-sponsored terrorism. Yet he has struggled to win allies among Sunnis antagonized by the Shiite-led government’s security tactics, and by his own blunt talk, which has frequently tarred Sunni opponents as Qaeda members, regardless of their affiliation.