At least 21 people have been killed in attacks across Iraq as violence continues despite the unveiling of a peace plan aimed at ending the bloodshed.
Three people were killed and ten others wounded in a suicide bombing in the northern city of Kirkuk. Local police said a bomber detonated his car at a petrol station used by government officials.
The explosion occurred as a number of civil servants were filling their cars, the blast destroyed the station and a number of nearby vehicles.
Also in Kirkuk, an Iraqi soldier and two civilians were shot dead by gunmen in different attacks.
In the restive city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, ten people were shot dead in a spate of attacks. Most of those killed were traders in the city market.
Three police officers and a civilian were killed and four others wounded in a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad.
And in the northern city of Mosul, a police commander was killed in front of his house by armed men.
Reconciliation drive
Under a reconciliation drive unveiled by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki more than 2,500 prisoners may be released from Iraqi prisons.
Mr Maliki hopes freedom for the mostly Sunni detainees will help defuse the Sunni insurgency.
UN agency highlights sectarian divide
The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq has published figures highlighting the number of people displaced by violence in post-war Iraq.
The UNAMI estimates that 1.3 million individuals are displaced inside Iraq, nearly 5% of the total population.
The agency says the number of those displaced has swelled by 150,000 since the bombing of a Shia shrine in February pushed the country to the brink of civil war.
While bombings claim lives nearly every day, systematic sectarian killings are forcing Iraqis to flee their homes, causing demographic upheaval in a country where many districts are a mix of Shias and Sunnis.
The figure of 150,000 displaced does not include those who have sought refuge with relatives or fled abroad.
Sectarian violence, which kills 30 to 50 people a day in Baghdad alone, has forced Sunnis to flee north and Shias to head south, finding safety in numbers in areas heavily populated by their own sectarian groups.
