BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 32 Iraqis were killed and 123 others wounded in six car bombings and a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad by mid-day Monday, an Interior Ministry official said.
Most of the attacks hit predominantly Shiite areas and most casualties were civilians.
The U.S. military said it believes the attacks were the result of "a coordinated effort" by al Qaeda in Iraq to try to instigate sectarian violence.
According to ministry officials:
In one attack, a parked car detonated in the Iraqi capital's slum of Sadr City, killing at least 10 and wounding 65 others. The car was parked near a marketplace, the ministry official said.
The predominantly Shiite district of Sadr City is home to approximately 2.5 million to 3 million and is a stronghold of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army.
The first bombing at 7:30 a.m. was a car bomb parked near a busy restaurant and a group of day laborers lining up for work in central Baghdad. At least four people were killed and 16 others wounded, most of them laborers.
A car bombing at a marketplace in a predominantly Shiite town north of Baghdad killed four people and wounded 20 others.
At least two Iraqis were killed and four others wounded when a parked bomb detonated in eastern Baghdad shortly before 10 a.m. The attack in the capital's New Baghdad district targeted the convoy of an Iraqi brigadier general. He escaped unharmed, but one of those killed and one of the wounded were members of his security detail. The others were civilian bystanders.
A bomb placed under a parked car detonated in eastern Baghdad, wounding at least four Iraqis. The bomb detonated as a national police patrol drove by. One of the wounded was a policeman and the others civilians.
At least 12 people were killed and 25 others wounded when a double car bomb detonated near a busy Baghdad marketplace.
The attack shortly past noon struck a marketplace in a predominantly Shiite area in southern Baghdad.
One bomb was parked outside the market and another in the market. They detonated in quick succession.
CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.
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