Bombs that exploded across Baghdad today killed 16 people and wounded dozens, with two of the blasts striking the crowded Shia slum of Sadr City, security officials said.
In Iraq's usually quiet Anbar province, the country's largest, a rare two-day vehicle ban was imposed across the vast desert region after bombings in the provincial capital Ramadi.
The first Sadr City bomb, apparently targeting day labourers, killed four people and left 39 wounded, said Baghdad security spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi.
Another bomb in the same area of northeastern Baghdad killed three civilians and wounded 15. The slum was once a haven for gunmen loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, but the militia has now been largely disbanded and splintered.
In Husseiniya, just north of Baghdad, a series of blasts in a popular market killed five people and wounded 28, police said.
US combat troops pulled out of Iraqi cities and towns on June 30th, implementing the first stage of a security pact that requires all troops to leave by the end of 2012, raising doubts about whether Iraqi forces are ready to handle security.
A roadside bomb killed two civilians and wounded 13 others all from the same extended family as they made their way to a funeral in central Baghdad today, and a car bomb exploded near a vegetable market, killing two civilians and wounding six others in south Baghdad's Doura district, police said.
Many Iraqis doubt whether their own forces can protect them against militants without backing from US firepower.