Bombs killed at least 16 Iraqis Sunday in Baghdad and in the oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.
In Kirkuk, four car bomb blasts within a 30-minute period killed at least eight people and injured as many as 40, local police reported.
The first car bomb exploded at the entrance to a popular market around 10:30 a.m. local time. The second went off 10 minutes later in an area of the city that has several checkpoints and where Iraqi security forces patrol.
The third blast came at around 10:50 a.m. outside a police building. That explosion was also close to an Islamic school for girls, police said, and some of the students were among the casualties.
The fourth car bomb exploded at about 11 a.m. outside a teachers' institute, police said.
The explosions all appeared to come from parked cars and not suicide car bombers, officials said.
Kirkuk, home to Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens, has been a cauldron of ethnic tension.
On September 17, a series of bombings killed at least 23 people in the city.
Earlier this month, officials imposed a two-day curfew forbidding vehicles and even pedestrians from moving about the city as security forces conducted house-to-house searches.
Meanwhile in Baghdad Sunday, at least eight Iraqis were killed and nine wounded in four roadside bombings, including one attack against a convoy carrying a financial adviser to the Iraqi interior minister, police said.
Seven people died, including five civilian bystanders and two bodyguards, when two bombs exploded near the financial adviser's convoy in eastern Baghdad, police said.
Three Iraqi civilians and two bodyguards were wounded by the blasts, although the official was unharmed, police said.
A roadside bomb, apparently targeting civilians, exploded in western Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding two others, police said.
Another roadside bomb targeting a western private security convoy wounded two Iraqi civilians in eastern Baghdad, but none of the westerners in the convoy were hurt, police said.
Three U.S. soldiers were killed when their vehicle was struck by another roadside bomb south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said Sunday.
The deaths in that Saturday morning attack raised the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq to 2,753 -- plus seven military contractors -- and the toll in October to 46.
The U.S. military had previously announced the deaths of three service members on Friday and Saturday.
A U.S. airman was killed Saturday in the Baghdad area while serving as a turret gunner with Iraqi police. A Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died Saturday from wounds received in Anbar province, west of Baghdad. And a Multi-National Division-Baghdad soldier died Friday night after his vehicle was struck by roadside bomb southwest of Baghdad.
The Iraqi parliament Sunday confirmed the death of Iraqi journalist Qais al-Summary.
Al-Summary, a radio correspondent, was killed in a terrorist-related incident on Saturday, according to a statement from the Iraqi parliament. No other details were given.
Apparent revenge killings
A police official in Salaheddin province said Saturday that the bodies of 26 Iraqis, apparently killed in retaliation for the slaying of 14 Shiite construction workers, had been found scattered in and around the city of Balad.
The 14 Shiite construction workers, kidnapped Thursday in the mainly Sunni town of Dhuluiya, were found Friday morning with their throats slit and hands and legs bound, the official said.
The workers were from the Shiite town of Balad, near Dhuluiya, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad.
The official with the Salaheddin Joint Coordination Center said it appeared the 26 deaths around Balad since the discovery of the slain construction workers was due to Shiite retaliation. The bodies were discovered on Friday and Saturday.
He said a curfew has been imposed in Balad and Dhuluiya and a team of Iraqi police was sent to Balad to investigate.
Shake-up aims to curb violence
Iraq's Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry on Saturday announced a leadership shake-up and the firing of 3,000 employees accused of corruption or rights abuses, according to The Associated Press.
Spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf told AP that the Interior Ministry changes would ensure stronger action to stop the violence.
"We are working on reshuffling the ministry's vital posts like [the leaders of the] police commandos and public order forces, as well as some undersecretaries," he told AP without elaborating.
The Shiite-led national police force, controlled by the Interior Ministry, is widely accused of being infiltrated by Shiite militias blamed in slayings of Sunni Arabs. Critics say Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has been reluctant to move against the militias because many are linked to parties in his coalition, according to AP.
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