Rebel attacks across Iraq killed more than 30 people and wounded dozens of others in renewed violence on Thursday, as key political groups opposed incumbent Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's selection as the next premier.
In one of the bloodiest attacks, at least five people were killed and eight wounded when a car bomb went off in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, a security official said.
"A car loaded with explosives was parked not far from a market in Sadr City," the official added.
In another attack in Baghdad, four people were killed and 11 wounded, mostly women, when a bomb exploded in a market in the mixed south-eastern Jaafaraniya district, an Interior Ministry official said.
A police commando was killed and two wounded in the western Jihad district when a roadside bomb exploded next to their patrol, the official added.
The bodyguard of a Sunni political leader, Adnan al-Doulaimi, died and five others were wounded when their cars came under fire in the west of the capital. Doulaimi was not present during the attack.
In Khales, north of Baghdad, two Iraqis were killed and one received injuries in a roadside bomb blast. In Baquba, to the north-east, two more people died, including a policeman, and six received injuries in a series of attacks.
Further north, gunmen killed seven Iraqi soldiers and four policemen at a checkpoint early Thursday, a police officer from Tikrit said.