Multiple car bombings throughout primarily Shi'ite neighborhoods in Baghdad killed at least 54 people and injured 155 on Monday, increasing concern for safety amid sectarian violence, CNN reported.
A total of 14 bombs detonated in different parts of the city and suburban districts, three of which exploded in the predominantly Shi'ite Al-Shaab suburb.
According to Reuters, Sunni Muslim militants are largely suspected of responsibility for the recent car bombings.
The deadliest explosion occured in Sadr City near a group of men who gathered to find work.
"The driver said he would move the car soon, but it exploded a few minutes later," said Abu Mohammed, a worker at the scene.
Terror attacks and other acts of violence have resulted in the death of 5,000 civilians in 2013 so far, according to the United Nations Mission in Iraq. An additional 12,000 residents have sustained injuries as well.
A report published on Sept. 9 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies suggests that "Iraq may be moving back to a level of civil conflict that will amount to a serious civil war."
"There is also substantial reporting to show that Iraq's violence is not simply the product of extremists and terrorist groups," authors Anthony Cordesman and Sam Khazai added.
"Iraq's growing violence is also the result of the fact that Iraq is the scene of an ongoing struggle to establish a new national identity: one that can bridge across the deep sectarian divisions between its Shi'ites and Sunnis as well as the ethnic divisions between its Arabs and its Kurds and other minorities."
Nearly 5,000 civilians have fled to Anbar and Salah Al-Din governates to escape Baghdad's violence. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said last week that the rising levels of violence could spark a new refugee crisis in the country.
On Sunday, the capital of the Kurdistan region -- relatively peaceful compared to the rest of Iraq -- experienced it's first severe bombing since 2007.
"We realise that Arbil is a big, attractive target for terrorists," said the city's governor Nozad Hadi of the capital. "During the past seven years there were constant attempts by terrorists to undermine the security of the capital."
