Three car bombs exploded in quick succession in the mainly Shia southern city of Amarah today, killing or injuring at least 60 people.
Forty people were killed and more than 125 wounded when three car bombs exploded in quick succession in the Shia city of Amara in southern Iraq today, police said.
The bombings were among the deadliest in Iraq in months and came as tensions are running high across oil-producing southern Iraq, where rival Shia factions are struggling for influence as Britain reduces its forces in the region.
One police official in Amara said 40 people had been killed in the blasts, which all happened along the same street in the capital of Maysan province. A health official said 39 were killed and more than 125 wounded.
Most people were killed in the second and third explosions, police said. Many onlookers had gathered after the first blast in a parking lot and were killed or wounded when the subsequent car bombs exploded.
Officials said an unknown number of suspects had been detained.
The government in Baghdad issued a statement condemning the bombings and calling them a "desperate attempt" to draw attention away from recent security gains across Iraq.
Largely Shia southern Iraq including Maysan has escaped much of the sectarian violence that has plagued Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, and car bomb attacks are rare.
But southern Iraq is witnessing a turf war between rival Shia groups, including supporters of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia, and its chief rival the powerful Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council.
The bombings came three days after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid a brief visit to British forces in neighbouring Basra province.
Britain is expected to hand control of security next week to Iraqi forces in Basra. That will end Britain's security responsibility of the four southern provinces it once controlled, including Maysan, which was handed back in April.