Two bombs killed at least 25 people at a checkpoint outside a provincial Iraqi governor's house in the latest in a series of attacks against local government and security forces.
A suicide bomber blew himself up and a car bomb exploded almost simultaneously outside the Diwaniya governor's house, 150km south of Baghdad, just as guards changed shifts.
Officials said most of the victims were security staff.
Television footage showed the crumpled and burnt-out wreckage of a white truck lying by the remains of a guard post. Bloodied and wounded security guards filled the beds of a local Diwaniya hospital.
A spokesman for the provincial council in Diwaniya said the death toll had risen to 25 and 35 more were wounded.
Meanwhile, five people were killed and nine wounded in a separate attack when a bomb exploded in a restaurant in Mussayab 60km south of Baghdad.
The Diwaniya attack followed a similar pattern to an attack on a checkpoint in Tikrit earlier this month when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives as army guards were handing over security duty to police.
