Multiple car bombs kill dozens

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.