The worst violence in months hit Baghdad Thursday evening as four bombs ripped through Shiite neighborhoods, killing at least 40 people, Iraqi officials said.

The worst violence in months hit Baghdad on June 23 as four bombs ripped through Shiite neighborhoods, killing at least 40 people. [Photo:Sohu.com]

Among the victims, an American civilian aid specialist working to improve education in Iraq was killed in a separate attack, China Daily reported.

The first three bombs exploded almost simultaneously in a southwestern Baghdad neighborhood shortly after 7 PM.

One of the explosions targeted a Shiite mosque, another went off just outside a popular market, and the third exploded inside the market where people were doing their evening shopping ahead of the Muslim weekend.

An official from Baghdad's Yarmouk hospital confirmed that 34 people died and 82 others were injured in the three blasts.

A parked car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded about an hour later, killing six people, including one policeman and five bystanders in a different neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, China Daily said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Sunni extremists like al-Qaida in Iraq generally tend to target Shiite mosques and neighborhoods and Iraqi security forces.

Violence has plummeted since its peak in 2006-2007 when sectarian fighting almost plunged the country into civil war, but sporadic high-profile attacks still happen, according to a Xinhua report.