In a café located in Central Iraq, a suicide bomber killed 13 people on Monday, officials told the Associated Press. This has been the latest attack in a months-long surge of violence.

Police said the attack wounded another 25 people in the evening blast in Balad, 80 kilometers north of Baghdad. A medical official confirmed the number of casualties in a nearby hospital.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for attacks that killed a total of 69 people during the month long Muslim holiday of Ramadan.

Terrorists frequently attack Shiite civilians in order to undermine the government.

Last Saturday’s attacks targeted mostly cafes and busy marketplaces. They were the latest in a wave of bloodshed that has swept Iraq since April, killing more than 3,000 people and worsening already strained ties between Iraq’s Sunni minority and the Shiite-led government.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Iraq’s al-Qaeda affiliate said in a statement on the Internet that the bombings were in retaliation for the arrests of hundreds of Muslims by Iraqi security forces.