Ben Brown in Baghdad: "An anniversary drenched in blood"
At least 48 people have been killed
in a series of car and suicide bombings mainly in Shia areas in and around
Iraq's capital, Baghdad, officials say.
The co-ordinated attacks targeted markets, restaurants, bus stops and day
labourers during the morning rush hour. Iraq's deadliest day in six months came on the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Violence has decreased in Iraq since the peak of the insurgency in 2006 and 2007, but bombings are still common.
Sunni Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda have vowed to step up attacks on Shia targets and state officials this year in an attempt to provoke sectarian conflict and weaken the Shia-led government.
In a sign of concern over the security situation, the cabinet announced that it was delaying elections scheduled for 20 April in the provinces of Anbar and Nineveh by up to six months.
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A mortar shell landed near a clinic in the town of Taji, north of Baghdad, killing two people, while a suicide bomber targeted a bus stop in Iskandariya, south of the capital, killing five people, AP said.
Police also said three improvised explosive devices (IEDs) had been set off and weapons fired in the northern province of Kirkuk.
The attacks came amid heightened security in Baghdad, which saw new checkpoints set up and key roads closed, the AFP news agency reported. Soldiers and police were searching government vehicles which would usually be allowed to pass uninspected, it added.
Tuesday is believed to have been the deadliest day in Iraq since 9 September last year, when 76 people were killed in a wave of attacks, some of which targeted the security forces.
The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says no group has said it was behind Tuesday's violence, but the Islamic State of Iraq, a militant umbrella group that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq, has in recent months stepped up its attempts to revive the insurgency.
Such co-ordinated attacks are not unusual, but it is assumed that the timing may have been chosen to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the invasion, our correspondent adds.
It comes at a time of deep political crisis in the country, with the Prime Minister Nouri Maliki sharply at odds with a wide range of political forces, including the Kurds, most of the Sunni groups, and many factions within his own Shia community.
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