Baghdad, February 18 (RHC)-- Nearly 50 people have been killed in the past 24 hours by a series of car bomb explosions in the Iraqi capital and the southern city of Hillah. Several explosive-laden parked cars detonated across Baghdad on Tuesday, targeting the city's Shia districts.

One of the bombs ripped through a bus station in the capital's western neighborhood of Baiyaa and another went off in a commercial area in the affluent district of Karrada. But the deadliest attacks occurred in and around the mainly Shia city of Hillah, where 35 people were killed in seven car bomb explosions inside the city itself and the nearby towns of Haswa, Mahaweel and Mussayab.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Tuesday's explosions, which come less than a day after four car bomb blasts left 24 people dead in the city.

More than 470 Iraqis have lost their lives so far in February. According to official figures, some 1,013 people were killed in January, making it the deadliest month in Iraq since April 2008.