Iraqi police say insurgents killed at least 46 people in a series of bombings and other attacks Tuesday.
In the deadliest attack, a bomb killed at least 22 people in a Baghdad market. A short time later, a bomb at a bakery in the capital killed nine. Three other people died in other attacks in Baghdad.
South of the city, a bomb killed 12 people in Hillah.
The latest violence came as the the U.S. commander in Iraq, General George Casey, deployed 1,500 more troops to al-Anbar province west of Baghdad to assist Iraqi forces.
In other developments, a diplomat from the United Arab Emirates kidnapped in Iraq two weeks ago has been released. Emirati foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan thanked Iraqi authorities for helping ensure the diplomat's release.
Separately, Iraqi authorities say they arrested a terror suspect who confessed to beheading hundreds of Iraqis.
And the U.S. military says it has found the bodies of two Marines killed when their helicopter crashed Saturday in Anbar. Separate statements say a soldier was killed when a bomb exploded southeast of Baghdad and that Iraqi troops detained seven people in the capital responsible for improvised explosive device attacks against Iraqi security forces.
The surge in violence in Iraq comes as the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki struggles to agree on interior and defense ministers.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.