42 dead as car bombs rip through Iraq

Eight explosions in Baghdad's bus stations and markets have brought to 42 the total of people killed today by a string of car bombs in central and southern Iraq.

25 people were killed in the Baghdad's explosions, three were killed in a blast in Samarra and 14 others were reported dead after a car bomb went off outside a restaurant in Basra. All areas affected by the sequence of car bombs are mainly Shia Muslim districts.

In a separate incident 10 bodies were found on a desert highway near the capital of Anbar, Ramadi. The executed corpses, with bullet wounds to their head and chest, are believed to be those of the 10 police officers kidnapped last Saturday near the Syrian border.

Iraqi authorities told the press that over 175 people were injured in today's explosions, resulting in an ever-increasing level of violence mainly due to political and factional unrest.

No group claimed responsibility for the explosions but Sunni militant groups have in the past targeted security forces in an attempt to destabilise the government led by the Shia Muslim majority, which they look upon as illegitimate and accuse of discrimination.