Bombings in Iraq killed dozens of people on Friday, leaving blood-soaked streets from the capital to the north in a series of attacks blamed on Islamic militants.

Nine people died in a blast near a mosque in Baghdad’s mainly Shi’ite district of Karradeh. Another nine were killed when two car bombs detonated in suburbs of the capital.

The death tolled climbed again when a man strapped with a bomb on a motorcycle exploded in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing at least 8 people.

The attacks followed a bloody day on Thursday, when nearly 30 people died in bombings in Shi’ite-majority areas of the capital.

Iraq’s newly appointed government is facing an escalating security crisis as internal forces combat encroaching Islamic State militants, who have taken over parts of the north. The transnational group that began in Syria identifies with the Sunni branch of Islam, and has often targeted Shi’ite Muslims.

The U.S., and now France, are fighting IS with an air campaign, while Iraqi military and Kurdish security forces battle the militants from the ground.

 
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