A wave of attacks in Iraq, including a series of coordinated car bombs in Baghdad, killed 46 people today as militants took more territory from security forces in crisis-hit Anbar province.
The twin setbacks for authorities grappling with Iraq's worst period of unrest since the country emerged from a sectarian war that killed tens of thousands come just months before landmark parliamentary elections.
Diplomats including UN chief Ban Ki-moon have urged Iraq's leaders to seek political reconciliation to resolve nationwide violence and the standoff in Anbar, but Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has ruled out dialogue with militants as his forces have launched wide-ranging security operations.
But the operations, which authorities say have led to the killing and capture of several militants affiliated with the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, have not stopped the bloodshed.
Attacks in Iraq today killed 46 people and wounded dozens more, security and medical officials said, with most of the violence concentrated in Baghdad.
Seven car bombs went hit civilian targets in majority-Shiite or confessionally-mixed neighbourhoods of the capital, killing 24, with one targeting a packed market in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Shaab, and another detonating in front of a restaurant on Sanaa Street.
The blast on Sanaa Street killed three people and badly damaged the restaurant and nearby shops and cars.
Windows of nearby shops were shattered, the restaurant's ceiling partially caved in, and blood and mangled vehicle parts were scattered around the scene.
A suicide bombing at a funeral in the town of Buhruz, in the restive and religiously-mixed Diyala province north of Baghdad, also killed 16 people and wounded 20 others
The funeral was for a member of the Sahwa, the Sunni tribal militias who sided with the US military from 2006 against their co-religionists in al-Qaeda, helping turn the tide of Iraq's violent insurgency, officials said.
As a result, the Sahwa, or Awakening, are often targeted by Sunni militants who see them as traitors.
Six other people, including three soldiers, were killed in attacks in and around the northern city of Mosul.
