Bombs planted on two minibuses killed 20 people and wounded 10 near the usually quiet southern Iraqi town of Kut today, police sources in Baghdad said.
The buses were on their way to Kut, a mainly Shia Muslim area 150km southeast of Baghdad, from Baghdad, one police source in Kut said. The Kut official put the toll at 11 killed and 10 wounded.
Iraq has been reeling from a series of huge bombings in the last two months, mainly in and around the capital Baghdad, the troubled northern city of Mosul and western Anbar province.
Violence in those regions has been partly blamed on feuds between majority Shias and minority Sunnis and ethnic Kurds. Mainly Shia southern Iraq has been relatively quiet.
The attacks came on the same day that traditional political allies of Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said they had formed an alliance to compete in January's general election without Maliki's Dawa party.
Some analysts blame friction within sectarian groups for at least some of the recent violence, which has raised questions about whether local security forces can ensure Iraq is not dragged back into the fierce sectarian bloodshed unleashed by the 2003 invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
The government, facing criticism after massive truck bombs killed almost 100 people on Wednesday in the deadliest attack this year, has promised to redouble security.
Reuters