A car packed with explosives detonated at a dealership in southern Iraq on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 32. In Baghdad, mortar rounds hit the Interior Ministry and a nearby park, killing two government employees. Police also said three members of al-Qaeda in Iraq had been killed during clashes south of Baghdad last week.
Earlier, blasts killed two people in Baghdad and injured seven on Tuesday as Iraq's prime minister held meetings aimed at finding new defense and interior ministers.
In Tuesday's violence, a roadside bomb in southern Baghdad killed one police officer and injured four. Elsewhere, police said a car loaded with mortar rounds and explosives went off near the Interior Ministry, killing a man there and injuring three city workers on a soccer field, police Capt. Mohammed Abdul-Ghani said.
According to the AP, police also found the bodies of three blindfolded and handcuffed men who had been tortured and shot in the head.
The US military said another U.S. soldier died Monday during combat in northern Iraq, and the bodies of two Marines missing after a helicopter crash in western Iraq over the weekend were recovered.
Meanwhile, Iraq's parliament debated the deteriorating security situation in the capital and some of the provinces, but failed to form a commission to deal with the problem because of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's inability to appoint defense and interior ministers.
Al-Maliki held a series of meetings with political leaders Tuesday to find a way out of the deadlock.
