A series of car bomb attacks targeting a city north of Baghdad killed five people on Tuesday amid a major surge in violence across Iraq that have left more than 4,000 people dead.
Two car bombs went off on the northern and eastern outskirts of Baquba, capital of the Diyala province and one of Iraq's most unstable cities, security and medical officials told AFP.
Iraqi officials told AFP that five people were killed and a dozen more were wounded.
Baquba lies around 60 km north of Baghdad and it and its surrounding province is has a majority Sunni population, but is also scattered with substantial Shiite Muslim and Kurdish minorities, AFP reported.
The Shiite-led government has launched a major crackdown on Sunni militants across Iraq to curb the wave of violence that has rocked the country in 2013.
Violence has undergone a huge increase in Iraq this year, at least 4,000 people killed since the beginning of 2013, according to an AFP tally.
Officials, under the directives of Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki, have vowed to press on with a campaign targeting militants they say has led to the capture of hundreds of fighters and the killing of dozens more. The government has faced critcism for failing to do more.
