At least 67 people have been killed and over 50 injured in two separate suicide attacks in Iraq today.
Guerrilla bombings and other attacks have killed more than 250 people since the cabinet was announced eight days ago, in one of the bloodiest weeks of the insurgency.
In the deadliest blast today, a suicide car bomber struck a vegetable market in a southern Iraqi town, killing at least 58 people and wounding 44, police and hospital officials said.
The attack hit the mostly Shi'ite town of Suwayra, reinforcing fears that guerrilla violence will fuel growing sectarian tensions and ignite a civil war.
Guerrillas also exerted pressure on US allies in Iraq. In a new video aired on al-Jazeera, kidnappers of an Australian man demanded Australia begin withdrawing troops from Iraq within 72 hours. The shaven-headed hostage was shown held at gunpoint.
In Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle beside a minibus carrying policemen, killing at least nine and wounding several, local police said.
Millions of Iraqis braved suicide bombs to vote in the January 30 elections, expecting a new era of democracy that would end two years of suicide bombings, kidnappings and rampant crime.
But insurgents have stepped up bombings of security forces since the government was announced, defying leaders who face the daunting task of tackling violence so that Iraq can start rebuilding its shattered economy and infrastructure.
Guerrilla attacks gained momentum as politicians bickered for three months before announcing an incomplete cabinet, and the latest wave of violence has challenged the government to make good on its promise to tackle insurgents.
A series of bomb blasts and ambushes in Baghdad killed at least 24 people last night. The previous day, a suicide bomb in the northern town of Arbil killed as many as 60 people, and a car bomb in Baghdad killed nine Iraqi soldiers.
Iraqi officials often blame such attacks on the elusive al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose group claimed the Tikrit bombing near a checkpoint set up by Iraqi security forces.
"A lion from the martyrs' brigade attacked a group of the apostate police, who are agents of America, in the city of Tikrit ... killing many, " said a statement from al-Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq on an Islamist Web site. Its authenticity could not be verified.
In Baghdad, a resident alerted police after he saw bodies being buried. Police found the corpses of 14 men. Some of the victims, blindfolded and wearing civilian clothes and left in a garbage dump, had been shot in the head, police said today.