Coordinated bombings across Baghdad destroyed seven buildings and killed at least 35 people on Tuesday, authorities said, fuelling fears of a surge in violence after an inconclusive parliamentary election.
More than 100 people have been killed in attacks in the capital in the past five days but, almost a month after a parliamentary election, the formation of a new government could be weeks or months away.
Prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, who campaigned on a record of improved security after years of sectarian slaughter, said security would be doubled in Baghdad and called on political parties to stand with the army and police against "terrorists".
"They want to push the country into chaos and sedition and to break the will of the Iraqi people," Mr Maliki said in a written statement issued late today.
"I call on all political parties and blocs to hold together and stand beside the security forces, and prevent escalation, because it is not the proper time to release accusations and depress the security forces."
The prime minister's statement followed sharp criticism by his main election rival, secularist former prime minister Iyad Allawi, whose cross-sectarian Iraqiya coalition won two more seats than Mr Maliki's State of Law bloc in the March 7th vote.
"Government officials hold responsibility for not achieving security," Mr Allawi said as he gave blood for the wounded. "I don't know what they have been doing in these [last] four years."
"They have been saying 'we are ready'," Allawi said. "Where is this readiness? Nothing is ready."
The latest blasts, mostly aimed against small residential buildings, killed 35 people and wounded 140, a police source said. An interior ministry source said 28 were killed and 75 wounded.
Rescuers scoured the debris of a collapsed three-storey building in the Alawi district of central Baghdad for survivors. The building had a cafe filled with customers on the ground floor and apartments above, witnesses said.
"Suddenly we heard a big explosion and then this building collapsed. Many people are still under the debris," a man at the scene said.
Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi blamed the wave of attacks since Friday on remnants of al Qaeda and supporters of former dictator Saddam Hussein and his outlawed Baath Party.
Mr Moussawi put the toll at 22 dead and 134 wounded. "We are in a battleground and we have to expect any type of attack," he said on state-run television.
The bombings took place in the predominantly Shi'ite Shula and Chukook districts of northwestern Baghdad, the al-Shurta al-Rabaa area of southwestern Baghdad and the mixed Alawi district in the centre of the city.
Mr Moussawi said explosives experts defused two other bombs planted in houses in Chukook.
Two days earlier, coordinated suicide car bomb attacks on embassies killed 41 people and wounded more than 200. The Iranian, Egyptian and German embassies appeared to be the targets.
Gunmen attacked a village south of Baghdad, killing 24 people on Friday.
Iraqi security forces forecast a possible increase in violence after the March 7 election, which highlighted Iraq's sectarian divide.
Neither of the top two coalitions won enough seats to form a majority government, leading to concerns that long coalition talks could create a dangerous power vacuum.
Reuters