Three bombs exploded within an hour in Baghdad today, killing at least 23 people and injuring 56.
A car bomb exploded near a busy market in New Baghdad, a mostly Shi'ite neighbourhood on the south-eastern side of the city, killing at least 20 people and injuring 41, said police Lieutenant Ali Abbas.
The 11.30am (local time) blast happened near the district's traffic police directorate.
Less than an hour earlier, a device hidden under a car detonated as a police patrol was passing near the downtown Tahrir Square, said Major Falah al-Mohammedawi, an Interior Ministry official.
The blast missed the patrol, but killed three civilians and injured 15, said police Lieutenant Ali Mitab.
Residents alerted police to another suspect vehicle in the eastern suburb of Kamaliyah. It exploded as police were clearing the area, causing damage to nearby shops and houses but no casualties, said Maj. al-Mohammedawi.
Mortar blasts and gunfire kept Baghdad on edge overnight after a bloody day of sectarian attacks when US President George W. Bush told Iraqis to choose between "chaos and unity" but dismissed talk of civil war.
In the week since explosives demolished the Golden Mosque in Samarra, one of the holiest sites in Shi'ite Islam, sectarian violence has killed over 400 people by government reckoning, pitching Iraq toward a civil war that would inflame the Middle East and might thwart Bush's hopes of withdrawing US troops.
Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein is due to return to court for a second day of prosecution evidence; prosecutors yesterday presented what they said was a death warrant signed by Saddam for 148 Shi'ite men. The former leader, who staged a hunger strike during the two-week recess, was subdued. The judge ruled out some evidence.