Baghdad ( CNN ) -- Eleven people -- six in Baghdad and five in Kirkuk -- died in attacks in the two major Iraqi cities , police said Thursday . The incidents came amid an uptick of sectarian and political violence in the country . The bloodiest attack was in the northern city of Kirkuk , where a suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest Thursday afternoon at the main entrance to a Shiite mosque . At least five people died in that blast , while 17 others were wounded , police said . In Baghdad , a car bomb explosion in Sadr City -- a volatile , Shiite neighborhood in the eastern part of the Iraqi capital -- left three people and and 17 more wounded , police told CNN . Another car bomb blew up Thursday near an outdoor market in Baghdad 's Chukook neighborhood -- also a predominantly Shiite district . One bystander died and five people were wounded in that attack . Elsewhere in Baghdad , gunmen shot dead two people in the neighborhood of al-Bayaa . Two bombs exploded in the northern city of Mosul , police said Thursday . A car bomb wounded eight people and a roadside bomb wounded a Kurdish security officer at a joint Iraqi army-Kurdish checkpoint . Overall , violence has dropped significantly in Iraq since the peak of sectarian violence , between 2005 and 2007 . But tensions and violence , stirred in part by enmity between Shiites and Sunnis , have persisted since the U.S-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 . On Wednesday , bombings in Kirkuk and Baghdad left at least 29 people dead and 120 wounded .
NEW : Suicide bombing in Kirkuk kills 5 , wounds 17 , police say . 9 deadly blasts hit predominantly Shiite neighborhoods in Kirkuk . Baghdad also was hit by bombings ; 17 were wounded . 5 died in violence Wednesday in Kirkuk and Baghdad .