Baghdad bomb attacks kill 71, wound 201 as cars explode across city.

Iraqi civilians check the site of an explosion in Baghdad on August 28, 2013. Coordinated car bombs ripped through mostly Shiite neighbourhoods in the Baghdad area during rush hour.

BAGHDAD - At least 71 people were killed and 201 wounded in a series of bombings and other attacks across Baghdad on Wednesday, police and medical sources said, extending the worst wave of sectarian bloodshed in Iraq for at least five years.

It was not immediately clear who carried out the attacks, which appeared coordinated, but Sunni Muslim insurgents including the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq have significantly stepped up bombings this year.

More than two years of civil war in neighboring Syria have aggravated deep-rooted sectarian divisions in Iraq, fraying the country's uneasy coalition of Shi'ite Muslim, Sunni Muslim and Kurdish factions.