BAGHDAD — A barrage of car bomb and suicide bomb blasts rocked Baghdad and two northern communities Thursday, killing at least 51 people during a major holiday period and extending a relentless wave of bloodshed gripping the country.



The bulk of the blasts struck the Iraqi capital shortly after nightfall. Authorities reported seven car bomb explosions across Baghdad, including one near a playground that killed two children.



Iraq is weathering its deadliest outburst of violence since 2008, raising fears the country is returning to the widespread sectarian killing that pushed it to the brink of civil war in the years after the 2003 US-led invasion.



The bloodshed began early Thursday when a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car among houses in an ethnic minority village in northern Iraq. That attack, in the Shabak village of Al-Mouafaqiyah near the restive city of Mosul, 360 km northwest of Baghdad, killed at least 15 and wounded 52, police said.



The United Nations envoy to Iraq condemned the attack and said rising violence in Ninevah province requires “urgent action and strengthened security cooperation” between regional authorities and the central government.



“The United Nations pays particular attention to the protection of minority communities who continue suffering from heinous attacks (and) economic and social barriers,” envoy Nickolay Mladenov said.



Another suicide bomber struck hours later, setting off an explosives belt inside a cafe in Tuz Khormato, killing three and wounding 28, police chief Col. Hussein Ali Rasheed said.



The town, a frequent flashpoint for violence, sits in a band of territory contested by Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen about 200 km north of Baghdad.



The Baghdad explosions went off in quick succession as families were heading out to parks, coffee shops and restaurants in the evening, police said. — AP