At least 12 people were killed and 32 injured in a triple bombing in the central Iraqi city of Karbala on Monday, medics and witnesses said.
The first bomb targeted the city's educational administrative offices, the second struck near the ambulance administrative offices, and the third hit a nearby restaurant, witnesses told the German Press Agency dpa. Iraqi security forces quickly cordoned off the area, according to the witnesses.
The number of confirmed casualties could rise as emergency teams brought the dead and wounded to hospitals, medics said.
The blasts came amid political wrangling over parliamentary election results announced on Friday that showed former prime minister Ayad Allawi's bloc with a narrow lead over incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition. Al-Maliki has vowed to challenge the results.
Karbala is the site of several important shrines sacred to Shiite Muslims.