Car bombs that hit several mostly Shi'ite neighbourhoods of Baghdad and a town south of the Iraqi capital have killed at least 21 people and left dozens wounded.
It is the latest bout of violence ahead of the country's first parliamentary elections since the 2011 US troop withdrawal.
No group claimed responsibility for the attacks but they bore the hallmarks of an al Qaeda-inspired group and other Sunni insurgents, who use suicide and car bombs to target public areas and government buildings to undermine confidence in the Shi'ite-led government.
The explosions also coincided with the anniversary of the 2003 fall of Baghdad in the hands of US troops.
The deadliest attacks took place in Numaniyah, about 50 miles south of Baghdad, where a bomb first went off in a busy commercial area, followed by a car bomb that exploded as people gathered to help the victims from the first blast.
Altogether, five people were killed and 17 were wounded.
Earlier in the day, a car bomb in Baghdad's central Nidhal Street killed four people and wounded 11.
Three people died and nine were wounded in a car bombing in the northern Kazimiyah district.
Car bombs exploded in the areas of Shaab, Shammaiya, Karrada and Maamil, killing seven and wounding 30.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article