Bombs in Iraq killed at least 43 people today in the latest blow to the government's efforts to inspire confidence in the country's security forces.
The highest toll was in a roadside bomb attack on a bus filled with soldiers on a road between Tikrit and Baiji north of Baghdad. At least 23 of them were killed.
A source at the joint Iraqi-US military co-ordination centre in Tikrit said the toll could rise.
In Baghdad, a suicide bomber in a car targeted soldiers collecting their salaries from a bank, killing at least ten people. The attack took place at the same spot in the district of Karrada where a car bomb and mortars killed at least 27 people last week.
Iraqi security forces were also targeted in the town of Muqdadiya, 90 kilometres northeast of the capital. A car bomb exploded as a police patrol passed by in front of a hospital, killing at least seven people and wounding eight.
In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, a roadside bomb killed two police and wounded a third as they conducted a patrol. Another bomb killed a person in the Zayouna district of Baghdad, police said.
Two months after being sworn in, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has yet to prove he can ease sectarian violence that has raised fears of civil war.
So far, he has presented a 24-point reconciliation plan that is long on promises and short on details and imposed a security crackdown in Baghdad that has failed to ease bloodshed.
The United States plans to boost its troop levels in Baghdad in a bid to improve security but long-term stability, and an American withdrawal, depends on the performance of Iraqi forces.