Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has asked for international help, amid an uprising in a key part of the country and as 86 people died in a series of attacks in Baghdad. Baquba, and Mosul on Wednesday.

In his weekly TV address, Maliki asked for “a strong position against countries who give support” to armed groups, “drain[ing] the resources of terrorists”: “It may take time [to succeed] but…to keep silent means there would be sub-states creating problems for the security of the region and the world.”

Mainly-Sunni factions, tribal groups, and the Islamic State of Iraq and as-Sham have challenged al-Maliki’s Government in Anbar Province, taking control of Fallujah and fighting for the provincial capital Ramadi.

Nine car bombs exploded on Wednesday in majority-Shia or mixed neighbourhoods of Baghdad, killing 48 people.

Police said they arrested four would-be suicide bombers, all said to foreign Arabs.

A suicide bombing at a funeral in Buhruz, in Diyala Province north of Baghdad, killed 25 people and wounded 23. In the northern city of Mosul, 13 people were killed, nine of them soldiers. Seven employees of a brick factory were shot dead in Muqdadiyah, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad.