BAGHDAD (AP) -- A wave of car bombs hit the Iraqi capital on Thursday, killing 33 people and wounding dozens, the latest attacks in a months-long surge in violence.

Attacks have been on the rise in Iraq since a deadly security crackdown in April on a Sunni protest camp. More than 3,000 people have been killed in violence during the past few months, raising fears Iraq could see a new round of widespread sectarian bloodshed similar to that which brought the country to the edge of civil war in 2006 and 2007.

In the deadliest of the blasts across Baghdad, police said one car bomb struck near a bus station in the northern Shiite neighborhood of Khazimiyah, killing eight people and wounding 18 there.

Another car bomb exploded near a gathering of daily laborers in the Allawi area near the fortified Green Zone where government offices are located, killing six people and wounding 13. In eastern Baghdad, seven people were killed and 15 others were wounded when a car bomb went off near a traffic police office in Baladiyat neighborhood.

Associated Press footage from the Baladiyat blast showed smoke rising from charred cars and people mourning one of those killed there.

Also, a car bomb hit a row of shops in the Bab al-Muadham area, killing 4 people and wounding 12. In western Baghdad, a sticky bomb attached to a cart selling gas cylinders, killed three people and wounded 8 others.

A car bomb hit near car repairing shops in the city's northeastern suburb of Husseiniyah, killing four people and wounding 15, police said.

Mohammed Sabri, a retired government employee, was on his way to the market in Husseiniyah when he heard a thunderous explosion.