BAGHDAD, Jan. 14 -- At least 24 people were killed and 55 others wounded in violent attacks across Iraq on Tuesday, most of them in and around the capital city of Baghdad, police said.

Six people were killed and 13 others wounded Tuesday evening when a car bomb struck a popular market in Ghazaliya area of western Baghdad, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Unidentified gunmen attacked a police checkpoint in Tarmiyah, some 30 km north of Baghdad, and killed three Iraqi policemen, the source said.

A total of 13 people were wounded when three car bombs exploded in the city of Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, the source added.

Earlier in the day, at least 15 people were killed and 29 others wounded in separate attacks in Baghdad and the eastern province of Diyala, police said.

In Baghdad, four people were killed and 10 others wounded in a car bomb explosion at a busy intersection in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City in the eastern part of the capital, a police source told Xinhua.

The toll could rise as ambulances and civilian vehicles evacuated the wounded to different hospitals and medical centers in the city, the source said.

In a separate incident, two policemen and a member of a government-backed Sahwa paramilitary group were killed and five policemen were wounded when a bomb planted at their joint checkpoint detonated in al-Wahda district in the southern Baghdad, the source said.

Meanwhile, Mutar Hussein, a judge, and his driver were shot dead by gunmen using silenced weapons near Qahtan Square in Yarmouk district in western Baghdad, the source added.

In addition, nine people were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in al-Moheet street in Kadhmiyah district in northern Baghdad, he said.

In Diyala province, gunmen attacked two houses at the edges of the city of Khalis, near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, killing five people, three of them from one family, and wounding two others, a provincial police source told Xinhua.

Separately, the police found a body of a man with bullet holes in the head and the chest outside the town of Buhruz, some 10 km south of Baquba, the source said.

Three civilians were wounded in a roadside bomb which struck their vehicle near the town of Udheim, some 60 km north of Baquba, the source added.

Iraq is witnessing its worst violence in recent years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, a total of 8,868 Iraqis, including 7,818 civilians and civilian police personnel, were killed in 2013, which is the highest annual death toll for years.