Attacks across Baghdad, including car bombs at an up-scale shopping mall and near a juvenile detention centre, have killed 21 people.
The bombings and a deadly, weeks-long stand-off in the western province of Anbar, part of a nationwide surge in violence that has already killed more than 600 this month, come just months ahead of parliamentary elections.
Diplomats including UN chief Ban Ki-moon have urged authorities to pursue political reconciliation with disaffected Sunni Arabs to resolve the unrest, but the US has said it will provide training for Iraqi forces in a third country and would ship small arms to the country's security forces.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has taken a hard line and ruled out dialogue with militants.
Iraqi officials have instead trumpeted wide-ranging security operations against militants, including in the desert region of Anbar, which borders Syria, but they appear to have done little to abate daily bloodshed.
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In Baghdad on Saturday evening, seven attacks - including six car bombs - killed at least 21 people and wounded more than 60 others, security and medical officials said.
One of the blasts went off near the glitzy new Mansur Mall, one of the capital's most up-scale shopping centres, where families and young people often meet in the evenings to go to the cinema or eat at Western-style restaurants.
At least five people were killed and 12 more were wounded.
The area was deserted after the attack as shoppers rushed out of the mall and quickly made their way home, while security forces imposed restrictions on movement in the area, barring cars from entering or leaving the district, AFP journalists at the scene said.
Another car bomb in the Taubchi neighbourhood detonated near a juvenile detention centre, and conflicting reports of a prison break spurred the authorities to effectively shut down the area, an AFP journalist said.
The blast killed five people and left 13 others wounded, officials said.
An interior ministry official said 23 detainees managed to escape in the chaotic aftermath of the attack, but Iraqiya state TV said security forces managed to prevent the attempted jailbreak.
Bombs also went off near a bus station in Nahda, a bridge in Utaifiyah, while attacks struck the neighbourhoods of Amriyah, Jamiyah and Adel, killing 11 people in all.
Saturday's unrest was the latest in a long-running trend of attacks striking in the capital during the evening, when Baghdad's residents are often congregating at cafes, markets, restaurants and shops.
Such onslaughts had previously struck during morning rush hour.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Sunni militants linked to Al-Qaeda often carry out waves of coordinated bombings in the capital against civilian targets.
