“Terrorist attacks and massacring innocent people and defenseless pilgrims is inhuman and the most savage act carried out by foreign-backed Takfiri and terrorist groups,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said on Sunday.

Afkham added that these terrorist attacks were aimed at undermining Iraq's security and stability.

At least 78 people were killed in Iraq on Saturday as a wave of bombing swept the country.

A car bomb attack targeting Shia pilgrims in the north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, killed at least 51 people and injured 107 others.

The pilgrims were on their way to visit a shrine in the al-Kadhimiya district to mourn the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Mohammad al-Jawad (AS), the ninth Imam of Shia Muslims.

Meanwhile, more than 10 people were killed and 35 others wounded after a car bomb exploded near a cafe in the town of Balad, about 80 kilometers north of the capital.

Expressing the Islamic Republic’s sympathies over the attacks, Afkham said Tehran supports the Iraqi government’s measures to fight and uproot terrorism in the country.

Iraq has seen a sharp rise in bombings and shootings since the beginning of this year.

According to the United Nations, almost 1,000 people were killed and more than 2,000 were wounded in violence in Iraq in September, making it one of the deadliest months in recent years.

Iraq’s Interior Ministry has said that militants have launched an open war in Iraq and they want to push the Middle Eastern country into chaos.

HH/HH