Bombs in two majority Shia Muslim cities in southern Iraq have killed at least 30 people, police and hospital sources say.
Scores more were wounded in the blasts, which struck during a month that is of special significance to Shia Muslims, who are often targeted by al-Qaida's Iraqi affiliate and other Sunni Muslim insurgents.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Iraq so far this year following last December's withdrawal of US troops.
Tensions between Shia, Kurdish and Sunni factions in Iraq's power-sharing government have been on the rise since the US withdrawal. Rivals of the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, a Shia Muslim, accuse him of trying to monopolise power.
Iraqi officials are also now worried that Islamists may be gaining strength from the conflict in neighbouring Syria, where Islamists have joined the ranks of rebels fighting to overthrow the president, Bashar al-Assad.
Two explosions near a restaurant in the city of Hilla, 60 miles south of Baghdad, killed 28 people.
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