At least 12 people have been killed and more than 40 wounded in a series of car bomb attacks in Iraq, BBC News said.

Reports say the attacks happened in and around Baghdad, with at least eight people killed when a car bomb exploded outside a market in a mainly Shia district of the capital.

A dawn car bomb also targeted a government building in the nearby predominantly Sunni city of Taji.

June has been a particularly violent month in Iraq.

Nearly 200 have now reportedly been killed there since 13 June alone, far higher than the figure for May.

Hospital and police sources said Thursday June 28 car bomb at a market in the predominantly Shia Muslim district of Washash had killed at least eight people and wounded 30 others.

The blast in Taji, some 12 miles (20km) north of Baghdad, killed four and wounded 20, police said.

There are also unconfirmed reports that a police patrol and a roadblock manned by militamen trying to prevent al-Qaeda attacks were targeted.

Most of the recent attacks have targeted the majority Shia community and have been blamed on Sunni militants linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq.