The worst attack, the only confirmed suicide bombing, took place in the Karrada district where a bomber drove an ambulance into a government anti-corruption office, killing 25 and injuring 62.

[3] The attacks were the first assault on the capital after the beginning of an apparent sectarian crisis in the government, with prime minister Nouri al-Maliki issuing an arrest warrant for vice president Tariq Al-Hashimi just days before the incidents.

Other attacks left five people injured in Musayyib and Jurf Al-Sakhar south of the capital, and a body was found in Kirkuk.

The Islamic State of Iraq said the attacks were the latest in what they described as a "series of special invasions ... to support the weak Sunnis in the prisons of the apostates and to retaliate for the captives who were executed by the Safavid [Persian or Iranian] government."

Maliki has cracked down on Sunni politicians, and immediately after the US withdrawal of its troops this month, issued an arrest warrant for Vice President Tariq Hashemi.

The terror group said it "knows where and when to strike, and the mujahideen will never stand with their hands tied while the pernicious Iranian project showed its ugly face and what it wants with Sunnis in Iraq became obvious and exposed."