A suicide bomber walked into a Baghdad cafe and blew himself up, killing 12 civilians and injuring numerous people, security officials said.
Seconds later a nearby car bomb killed three policemen. At least 46 people were wounded in the two blasts.
The bombings occurred on Baghdad's Saadoun Street, the first targeting a coffee shop, said police Lieutenant Bilal Mohammed.
Police gave conflicting accounts as to what caused the blast, ranging from a suicide attacker wearing an explosives belt to a rigged cigarette cart with artillery shells placed inside.
The second blast caused by a planted bomb rocked a nearby restaurant.
Alaa Abid Ali, a medic at Baghdad's Kindi Hospital, said at least 14 bodies were received at his hospital while a number of others were taken to Ibn al-Nafis Hospital.
The blasts shattered nearby shop windows and destroyed several cars.
Wooden tables and chairs were strewn over the bloodstained pavement on which rescue workers treated some of the wounded.
Two men wailed above the bodies of two men covered with bloodstained blankets outside the coffee shop.
At the same time US and Iraqi forces were searching the desert north of Baghdad for 35 Iraqis kidnapped as they were returning home by bus after having failed to be accepted as police recruits.
Police General Malik al-Khezraji said "eight cars and minibuses loaded with dozens of gunmen held up the bus and took the men into the desert" on Monday night.
Insurgents, who boarded the bus in an industrial area near Taji, discovered some passengers were would-be police recruits, US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Wellman said.
Other passengers were taken off the bus and the rebels drove off with the rest.
Mother’s appeal
The mother of 28-year-old US journalist Jill Carroll, taken hostage by suspected insurgents, has pleaded for her release.
Her captors have threatened to kill her if all female Iraqi detainees held by US forces are not released by Friday night.
"I, her father and her sister are appealing directly to her captors to release this young woman, who has worked so hard to show the suffering of Iraqis," said Ms Carroll's mother, Mary Beth, reading a statement on CNN.
"Taking vengeance on my innocent daughter, who loved Iraq and its people, will not create justice. To her captors, I say that Jill's welfare depends upon you, and so we call upon you to ensure that Jill is returned safely home to her family, who needs her and loves her."
Jill Carroll, a freelancer working with the Christian Science Monitor, was seized by gunmen in Baghdad on January 7 and her intepretor killed.
In a move that could help her, the justice ministry announced that six
Iraqi women detainees would be freed in the coming days after their cases had been considered by a review board.
The Islamic Party, the main Sunni-based political formation, also urged the kidnappers to free her, saying it condemned the "abduction of innocent people."
Amid the bloodshed, Italy announced it would withdraw all of its remaining troops from Iraq by the end of the year.
"The military operation Antica Babilonia (Ancient Babylon) will end its mandate gradually over the course of the year 2006 and the mission will be considered over and accomplished at the end of the year," Defense Minister Antonio Martino told Italy’s parliament.
Italy, a staunch US ally, has kept about 3,000 soldiers in southern Iraq, near Nasiriyah, despite popular opposition at home.
Troop withdrawal has become a hot electoral campaign issue three months ahead of parliamentary elections.
Election fraud
On the political front, foreign experts said that while last month's Iraqi parliamentary elections were marred by some fraud, that did not call into question the overall results.
An uncertified final tally is expected as early as this weekend, officials have said.
Early results suggested that the religious Shiite alliance and their Kurdish allies will remain in power.
The December 15 election, held to elect the first full-term parliament since Saddam Hussein was overthrown in 2003, was marked by "fraud and other violations," the International Mission for Iraqi Elections (IMIE) said.
This forced Iraq's independent electoral commission on Monday to nullify the results from several dozen polling stations "where significant offences occurred," the team noted.
The IMIE studied voting results at the request of the electoral commission after Sunni-based and several secular parties complained of what they alleged was widespread fraud.
The report welcomed the holding of elections despite widespread violence in the country, saying: "Giving the vast majority of Iraqis an opportunity to vote... in itself is an accomplishment."
The experts took the unprecedented step of suggesting that the election results be confirmed "there is an urgent need, at this period in the history of Iraq, for a formation of a government of true national unity".
Such appeals have been made by some Iraqi leaders and British and US officials, who are anxious to see minority Sunni Arabs included in a broad-based government in order to undermine their community's support for the insurgency.