Up to 25 people were killed and about 60 wounded in attacks in Baghdad and Mosul today while two British military personnel died when two helicopters crashed north of the city.
The two car bombs in Baghdad killed 15 people and wounded 50 went off in the al-Shurta al-Rabeia neighbourhood.
The first was detonated in a market, followed seconds later by another at a nearby intersection, police said. They said mortar rounds also landed in the area in an apparently coordinated attack.
Twisted metal littered the market, television footage showed. Several cars were damaged in the explosion.
In the Kadhimiya district in the northwest of the city, a police source said a suicide bomber wearing a belt packed with explosives killed six people and wounded 11 in a small bus.
Another police source put the death toll at three.
Meanwhile British minister Des Browne confirmed today that two US military helicopters which crashed in Tajii nine miles from Baghdad led to the death of two UK personnel and the injuring of five others.
"An investigation will be conducted to determine the cause of the incident; however, initial reports indicate it appears to be from mid-air collision and not the result of enemy fire," a US military statement said.
The Puma aircraft normally have a three-person crew and can carry up to 16 troops.
Meanwhile, four people, including two Iraqi soldiers, were killed when two oil trucks driven by suicide bombers exploded outside an Iraqi military base in Mosul, in the north of Iraq, police said.
Yesterday, a suicide car bomber killed at least 40 people and wounded scores at a crowded bus station in Kerbala, a holy city that is a main pilgrimage destination for Shi'ites.
A suicide car bomber in Baghdad also killed 10 people after detonating his device near a checkpoint at the southern Jadriyah bridge on Saturday.
Sectarian tensions between majority Shi'ites and once dominant Sunni Arabs remain high after the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in the town of Samarra in February 2006 unleashed a wave of violence. Tens of thousands have been killed since then.