IRAQ:A car-bomb killed 25 people yesterday at a busy intersection in Baghdad while a roadside bomb killed three British soldiers in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
More than 150 British soldiers have now been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion.
An interior ministry official cast doubt on reports that 20 beheaded bodies had been found on a river bank south of Baghdad.
Police initially said that the bodies had been found by residents in the Sunni town of Salman Pak, but the official said that an interior ministry team which went to the area with US soldiers could not find any victims.
In Baghdad, another car-bomb targeting motorists queuing for petrol killed five people, police said. Mortar bombs also killed four people in two separate neighbourhoods in the city.
The bombings underscore the strength of militants in Iraq despite the arrival of 28,000 additional US troops. The unrelenting violence is pushing Iraq to the brink of all-out civil war between the majority Shia and minority Sunni Arab populations.
US and Iraqi officials blame most car-bombings on Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda. While the group has a strong foothold in Iraq, prime minister Nuri al-Maliki warned that the interrogation of captured al-Qaeda operatives showed that the network was also planning attacks in a number of other countries.
Mr Maliki made the comments in a speech to anti-terrorism officials in Baghdad, a statement from his office said.
"The prime minister warned of a widespread and dangerous plan by the terrorist al-Qaeda organisation to target a number of countries which suffer religious and sectarian problems," the statement said, without naming any countries. "The confessions by members of al-Qaeda captured in Iraq uncovered a plan to cause panic and insecurity in those countries."
The deadliest of the car-bombs in Baghdad exploded in a Shia district. The blast wounded 40 people and destroyed dozens of vehicles.