Car bomb attacks were launched at the gates of the main US-Iraqi headquarters in Baghdad and major hotels today, killing at least 21 people and wounding 96.
In Fallujah, US warplanes struck what the military called terror hideouts, killing 11, according to doctors who said women and children were among the dead.
The two car bombs ripped through central Baghdad streets about an hour apart.
In the first explosion, a truck packed with explosives detonated outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, the seat of the US embassy and key Iraqi government offices.
Yarmouk Hospital received 15 bodies and 81 wounded from the explosion, said Sabah Aboud, the facility's chief registration official.
"I was thrown 10 metres away and hit the wall," said Wissam Mohammed, 30, who was visiting a nearby recruiting centre for Iraqi security forces. He lay in a bed at Yarmouk Hospital, his right hand broken, his head wrapped in bandages and his clothes stained with blood.
The second car bomb exploded 45 minutes later, targeting a convoy of vehicles leaving a complex of major hotels where foreign contractors and journalists reside. Bursts of gunfire echoed through the street after the blast.
At least six people were killed and 15 wounded, said Tahsin al-Freiji of the Facility Protection Service, which guards major installations in the city.
A pick-up truck loaded with dates exploded as it ploughed into the three-vehicle convoy as they emerged from a parking area shared by several major hotels, al-Freiji said at the scene.
Minutes later, unidentified gunmen began shooting from the rooftops and police returned fire, said Tahsin al-Kaabi, another FPS member.
The pick-up truck carrying the explosives was ripped in half with one part left dangling from a shop sign on the opposite side of the street.
At least five other cars were charred, including one of the targeted 4X4 vehicles, which had a burned body left sitting in the front passenger seat. Another man was thrown against a garage wall, his body crumpled in the street. A head and other body parts were strewn in the road amid shards of glass.
"I was on my way to work. We heard a big boom and I briefly passed out," said Razaq Hadi, 36, who was riding a minibus that was damaged in the blast. "I saw seven of the passengers who were seriously wounded being taken out through the broken windows."
The driver was killed. "I saw his body torn apart," said Hadi, who was covered in the man's blood.
Both the Green Zone and the area around the hotels have been the target of previous suicide attacks that have killed dozens of people.
Two car bombs also exploded in Mosul, 225 miles north-west of Baghdad.
Two people believed to be transporting explosives and a civilian bystander were killed in one of the blasts, said Captain Angela Bowman, a military spokeswoman. Hospital officials said they treated 11 wounded in the blast.
The second bomb targeted a US army convoy, injuring one American soldier, Bowman said.
The soldier, who was not identified, was evacuated to a military hospital. There were no immediate reports of civilian casualties.
In rebel-held Fallujah, American warplanes unleashed strikes on two houses today, killing at least 11 people, hospital officials said.
The military said the strikes targeted followers of Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and their associates. A strike in the central Jumhuriyah area killed nine people, including three women and four children, said Dr. Adil Khamis of Fallujah General Hospital. Twelve were injured, including six women and three children, he said.
They include residents of neighbouring houses that were damaged in the blast.
A second strike in the city's southern Shuhada neighbourhood killed two more people, Khamis said.
Two American soldiers were killed by small arms fire at a checkpoint in Baghdad, the US command revealed today. The soldiers were killed on Sunday at a traffic control point jointly manned by Iraqi security forces.