Iraqi soldiers secure the area where a destroyed vehicle remains after car bomb attacks in Baghdad on April 6, 2009. More than 20 people were killed in four car bomb attacks in two hours, primarily in the Shiite neighborhoods. (UPI Photo/Ali Jasim) | License Photo

Iraqi soldiers secure the area where a destroyed vehicle remains after car bomb attacks in Baghdad on April 6, 2009. More than 20 people were killed in four car bomb attacks in two hours, primarily in the Shiite neighborhoods. (UPI Photo/Ali Jasim) | License Photo

Iraqi soldiers secure the area where a destroyed vehicle remains after car bomb attacks in Baghdad on April 6, 2009. More than 20 people were killed in four car bomb attacks in two hours, primarily in the Shiite neighborhoods. (UPI Photo/Ali Jasim) | License Photo

Iraqi soldiers secure the area where a destroyed vehicle remains after car bomb attacks in Baghdad on April 6, 2009. More than 20 people were killed in four car bomb attacks in two hours, primarily in the Shiite neighborhoods. (UPI Photo/Ali Jasim) | License Photo

An Iraqi policeman looks over the wreckage of a car bomb attack in Baghdad, Iraq on March 26, 2009. The bomb ripped through a crowd, killing at least 20 people, including women and children. (UPI Photo/Ali Jasim) | License Photo

Iraqi soldiers secure the area where a destroyed vehicle remains after car bomb attacks in Baghdad on April 6, 2009. More than 20 people were killed in four car bomb attacks in two hours, primarily in the Shiite neighborhoods. (UPI Photo/Ali Jasim) | License Photo

Iraqi soldiers secure the area where a destroyed vehicle remains after car bomb attacks in Baghdad on April 6, 2009. More than 20 people were killed in four car bomb attacks in two hours, primarily in the Shiite neighborhoods. (UPI Photo/Ali Jasim) | License Photo

BAGHDAD, April 6 (UPI) -- A series of car bombs exploded Monday in and around Baghdad, killing more than 40 people and injuring dozens more, police and Iraqi officials said.

The deadliest bombing killed at least 20 people near a marketplace in Sadr City in northeastern Baghdad, witnesses told The New York Times. More than 65 people were reported wounded.


At least four people were killed and 15 injured when a parked car exploded outside a restaurant in the Alawi neighborhood in central Baghdad, police said.

A bomb in a parked car exploded as a convoy that included an Interior Ministry official passed. While the official wasn't injured, a guard and a bystander were killed and four others were wounded, the ministry said.

Two bombings were reported in Baghdad's Um al-Malif area, the Times reported. Preliminary reports indicate at least people 12 died and more than 25 were wounded in the two blasts.

In Husainiya, a city northeast of Baghdad, another car bomb killed four and wounded 20.

Monday's bombings occurred three days before the April 9 anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime six years ago. The anniversary evokes divergent emotions among Iraqis, the Times reported.