Iraqi sectarian attacks kill at least 86 The scene of a car bomb attack in the Kamaliyah neighbourhood of Baghdad. Photograph: Hadi Mizban/AP A wave of attacks killed at least 86 people in Shia and Sunni areas of Iraq on Monday, pushing the death toll over the past week to more than 230 and extending one of the most sustained bouts of sectarian violence the country has seen in years. The worst of the violence took place in Baghdad, where 10 car bombs ripped through open-air markets and other areas of Shia neighbourhoods, killing at least 48 people and wounding more than 150, police officials said. In the bloodiest single attack, a parked car bomb blew up in a busy market in the northern Shia neighbourhood of Shaab, killing 14 and wounding 24. The predominantly Shia city of Basra was hit by two car bombs, one outside a restaurant and another at the main bus station, killing at least 13 and wounded 40, according to officials. In the town of Balad, a car bomb exploded next to a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims, killing 13 Iranians and one Iraqi, a police officer said. The bloodshed is still far shy of the pace, scale and brutality of 2006-07, when Sunni and Shia militias carried out retaliatory attacks against each other. But Monday's attacks have heightened fears that the country could be turning back down the path towards civil war. Sectarian tensions have been worsening since Iraq's minority Sunnis began protesting against what they say is mistreatment at the hands of the Shia-led government. Monday was the deadliest day in Iraq in more than eight months. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but the fact that they occurred in Shia areas raised suspicions that Sunni militants were involved. The prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, accused militant groups of trying to exploit Iraq's political instability to exacerbate sectarian tensions, and also blamed the spike in violence on the wider unrest in the region, particularly in Syria. He said insurgents "will not be able to bring back the atmosphere of the sectarian war." Many Sunnis contend that much of the turmoil is rooted in decisions made by Maliki's government, saying his administration planted the seeds for more sectarian tension by becoming more aggressive towards Sunnis after the US military withdrawal in December 2011. Monday's violence also struck Sunni areas, hitting the city of Samarra north of Baghdad and the western province of Anbar, a Sunni stronghold and the birthplace of the protest movement. A parked car bomb in Samarra went off near a gathering of pro-government Sunni militia who were waiting outside a military base to receive salaries, killing three and wounding 13. In Anbar, gunmen ambushed two police patrols near the town of Haditha, killing eight policemen, police and army officials said. Also in Anbar, authorities found 13 bodies dumped in a remote desert area, officials said. The victims, who included eight policemen kidnapped by gunmen on Friday, had been killed with gunshots to the head.