Dozens of people have been killed and many more wounded in a series of blasts in Baghdad.

At least 57 people died and 176 people were wounded in at least 12 bombings across the Iraqi capital on Thursday morning, health ministry sources told Al Jazeera. But there remained discrepancies between officials over the fast-changing casualty count. 

The wave of bombings come amid renewed fears of sectarian strife following the withdrawal of US troops and a deepening political crisis over an arrest warrant issued for Tariq al-Hashimi, the country's vice president and most senior Sunni politician. 

The attacks largely coincided with the morning rush hour, and security forces cordoned off bomb sites, AFP news agency correspondents and officials said. 

The officials said the bombs struck in the Allawi, Bab al-Muatham and Karrada districts of central Baghdad, the Adhamiyah, Shuala and Shaab neighborhoods in the north, Jadriyah in the east, Ghazaliyah in the west and al-Amil and Dura in the south.

"I saw all the windows were blown out and glass scattered everywhere. The children were scared and crying," said Raghad Khalid, a teacher at a kindergarten near the Karrada blast. 

."Some parts of the car bomb are inside our building" 

Smoke hung over the blast site in Karrada as ambulances rushed in to ferry the wounded to hospital. 

Al Jazeera's Omar al Saleh, reporting from Baghdad said: "The fears of the people became reality." 

"I think the people are really scared and I think the politicians do know that their differences will be translated into attacks like these on the streets of Baghdad." 

Violence in Iraq has ebbed since the height of sectarian fighting in 2006-2007 when suicide bombers and hit-squads targeted Sunni and Shia communities in attacks that killed thousands and pushed the country to the edge of civil war.

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Officials said at least 176 people were wounded from 12 bomb attacks in the centre, west, north and east of the capital.

Aljazeera