In Baghdad, police and medical sources said seven people, including two policemen, were killed in a vehicle bomb blast near the Jawaher Mall in the predominately Shiite district of Jadida.
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Officials now believe all the attackers have been killed but previously estimated that about 50-75 people were trapped in the mall, according to the Associated Press news agency.
“The security forces are at the scene and managed to recover the wounded”.
“The security forces are now fully in control, the gunmen have been killed and the hostages have been freed”, the police officer said.
In Muqdadiyah, about 90 kilometers north of the capital, a double suicide bombing killed at least 23 people.
The head of Baghdad Operations Command, Lieutenant General Abdelamir al-Shammari, insisted to reporters on the scene that the situation was quickly brought under control. Around 50 people were wounded in those attacks as well, Reuters reported.
Gunmen targeted the entrance to the Jawhara mall in a mainly Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad late Monday with a auto bomb and a suicide bomber before storming in and opening fire.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but suicide bombings are a tactic frequently used by Sunni militants in Iraq, including the Islamic State group.
The rise of the Islamist militant group Islamic State, which follows a Sunni jihadist ideology, has exacerbated a long-running sectarian conflict in the country, mostly between the Shi’ite majority and minority Sunnis.
It has carried out numerous atrocities, including the November attacks in Paris, which left 130 dead, and the October downing of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt that killed all 224 people on board.
The attacks come as the Iraqi army aided by a United States led western coalition sees success in Iraq, beating back the militants from Ramadi last month, with all eyes now trained on Mosul where the Iraqi government is mounting a fight.
Mr Abadi said that Iraq’s government will “spare no efforts” in expelling IS forces from the country.
The IS group steadily targets areas the place crowds collect, together with markets, cafes and mosques throughout Iraq.
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Security officials imposed a curfew on all of Diyala province, where Muqdadiyah and Baquba are located.
