A series of car bombs targeted Shiite-majority areas of the Iraqi capital on Sunday, killing at least seven people and wounding more than 40, security and medical officials said.

Three car bombs struck Sadr City in north Baghdad, while one car bomb exploded in Ameen and another in Al-Husseiniyah, both in east Baghdad, killing at least seven people and wounding another 46, an interior ministry official and a medic said.

The blasts, the latest incidents in a spike in violence, come as Iraq grapples with nearly two months of anti-government protests and a festering political crisis.

No group claimed responsibility for the attacks.

But Sunni militants linked to Al-Qaeda often target Iraq's Shiite majority in a bid to erode confidence in the government and push the country back towards the bloody sectarian conflict of 2006-2007.