Two suicide car bombers struck police checkpoints in Baghdad this morning, killing at least nine people.
A minivan bomb exploded at a checkpoint near the Sadir hotel in Baghdad city centre at dawn, killing six and wounding 16, police said. There were also reports of gunfire at the scene.
Most of those hurt or killed were Iraqi employees of a security firm guarding the building.
Just over an hour later a bomber struck Ansour Square, near an entrance to the heavily fortified Green Zone, the government and diplomatic compound. A source at Yarmouk hospital said it had received three dead and six wounded.
Those bombs followed a huge blast on Sunday, the worst in more than a week, when a suicide truck bomb packed with 500 lbs 220 kg of explosives blew up near a police station.
Funerals were held this morning for some of the 40 victims of the huge bomb.
The worsening violence has threatened to scupper efforts to write a constitution, just days before a deadline for a draft the Iraqi government hope will defuse a Sunni Arab insurgency by drawing them into politics.
Sunnis, the 20 per cent minority group who dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein, walked out of the negotiations after one of their delegates, Mujbil al-Sheikh Isa, was assassinated last week. They have demanded better security and an international investigation into the killing.
Even if the Sunnis return, however, there is considerable division among the parties, particularly on the issue of federalism. The extent of devolved power to the mainly Kurdish north and mainly Shia south is at issue - with central government control of the oil wealth a particular stumbling block.
The constitution text is due by August 15th, but August 1st is the deadline for announcing a six-month extension if the committee has not succeeded in drawing it up.