BAGHDAD (REUTERS) - A series of bombs targeting restaurants across Baghdad killed at least 21 people on Tuesday, police and medics said.

The Iraqi capital has witnessed a surge in bombings over the past month, most claimed by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants who have overrun large parts of the two neighbouring countries.

Twelve people were killed in Baghdad's northern Talibiya district when a car bomb blew up directly in front of a restaurant and another in the parking lot.

A homemade bomb exploded close to a restaurant in Baghdad's Sheikh Omar neighborhood, killing 2 civilians, and two more blasts near restaurants in the south of the capital left a further seven people dead, police and medical sources said.

ISIS militants surged towards Baghdad in June after seizing the northern city of Mosul but have not captured the capital.