Bombs exploded across the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing at least 15 people, police and medical sources said, a day after police broke up a Sunni Muslim protest camp in a western province.

BAGHDAD, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Bombs exploded across the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing at least 15 people, police and medical sources said, a day after police broke up a Sunni Muslim protest camp in a western province.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for any of Tuesday's attacks but al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate, which was forced underground in 2006-07, has reemerged this year, invigorated by civil war in Syria and Sunni resentment at home.

In the deadliest attack in Baghdad, seven people were killed when two car bombs hit the Shi'ite neighbourhood of Zafaraniya.

In southeastern Baghdad, three mortar rounds landed near a housing complex, killing four people, medics and police sources said.

A bomb attached to a truck killed the driver and one passenger in the mainly Shi'ite district of Basateen in northern Baghdad and gunmen shot dead one policeman and wounded another in southern part of the capital, police said.

Police and local officials in western Ramadi in Anbar said clashes between gunmen and security forces are still continuing inside the city on Tuesday.

Sunni outrage and the violence across Iraq is likely to deepen already severe sectarian rifts. More than 8,000 people have been killed in such violence this year.

After years of reduced bloodshed, the intensity of attacks has dramatically risen since the start of 2013. Bombings have often targeted cafes and other places where families gather, as well as the usual military facilities and checkpoints.

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed and Kamal Namaa; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.