Gunmen attacked a police station near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit today killing four policemen. Two gunmen were also killed in the exchange of fire that erupted after the assault.
Meanwhile a wave of car bombs killed at least eight people and wounded nearly 80 in Baghdad today
The bloodshed comes while Prime Minister-designate Jawad al-Maliki works on choosing a cabinet, which will share power among Shias, Sunni Arabs and Kurds in a bid to end the sectarian violence that threatens to drag Iraq into a civil war.
Two car bombs near Baghdad's Mustansiriya University, killed at least five people and wounded 25 others. Another bomb near the health ministry in the city centre killed three and wounded 25, police said. Four more bombs across the city wounded at least another 27 people.
Mr Maliki has four weeks to choose a new cabinet and form a government of national unity, widely seen as the only way to halt sectarian violence.
The cabinet and Mr Maliki's own appointment, made by President Jalal Talabani on Saturday, must be ratified by parliament.
A key test of his ability to lead and to unite will be his choice of interior minister, perhaps the most sensitive post given the brutal past many Iraqis endured under Saddam's rule and a present wracked by relentless instability and violence.