The blasts are the latest in a protracted surge of nationwide bloodshed that has left more than 3,600 people dead this year, fuelling fears Iraq is slipping back into the brutal communal bloodshed that blighted the country in 2006 and 2007.
Three blasts -- two suicide bombings and a vehicle rigged with explosives -- targeted pilgrims who were preparing for commemorations for a revered figure in Shiite Islam.
In the deadliest attack, a militant dressed in a black full-length woman's robe, or abaya, blew himself up amid a group of Shiite worshippers in the west Baghdad neighbourhood of Mansur.
Another suicide attacker detonated a car bomb in Baab al-Sharji, central Baghdad, killing three more, while a vehicle rigged with explosives in the northern neighbourhood of Urr left five dead.
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The worshippers -- many from elsewhere in the country -- were all walking from across the city to the district of Kadhimiyah, site of a shrine dedicated to Imam Musa Kadhim, the seventh of 12 revered imams in Shiite Islam.
The two-day rituals marking the anniversary of his death in 799 AD are due to climax on Saturday and Sunday.
Due to the heightened threat of attack, the authorities have imposed heavy security measures on the capital, involving the closure of entire roads and barring certain vehicles from the streets.
Violence has surged in the past year to its highest level since 2008, while anti-government fighters control an entire city a short drive from Baghdad and parts of another.
The authorities blame external factors such as the civil war in neighbouring Syria for the unrest, and say that wide-ranging operations targeting militants are having an impact.