At least 10 people were killed and 26 wounded when a car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in Kamaliyah neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad on Wednesday.

Two more car bombs rapidly followed near the Sunnial-Samarraie mosque in the Baghdad al-Jadida neighborhood, killing five people and wounding 10.

In a separate incident, two suicide truck bombs were detonated at a base housing the Iraqi army's 1st Brigade. The brigade, tasked with protecting oil infrastructure in the Rayadh area, and based 60 km southwest of Kirkuk, saw 10 soldiers killed and 13 wounded.

Also on Wednesday, a car bomb went off near a pharmacy close to the al-Yarmouk Hospital in western Baghdad, slightly wounding two.

Late on Tuesday, a suicide car bomber ploughed his car into an Iraqi army base on the main road between Tikrit and Kirkuk, killing four soldiers and wounding 14 others.

The surge of sectarian violence came three days ahead of a national reconciliation conference during which embattled al-Maliki will try to reach a common solution with political leaders to deal with difficulties facing rival communities.

Al-Maliki has been under mounting pressure to put an end to Shiite-Sunni killings which are worsening despite the government's call for militia to put down their arms.

The US military also announced Wednesday that five US soldiers were killed on Monday in separate incidents in western and southern Iraq.

The latest deaths brought to about 2,940 the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency December 14, 2006)