A car bomb targeting a popular restaurant left 15 people dead and wounded dozens more in the southern Iraqi town of al-Hamza, police and hospital sources said.
Elsewhere, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and 10 others wounded when a bomb attached to a military bus exploded at an army base in Habaniya, around 85km west of Baghdad, army sources said.
Bombings and killings occur on a daily basis in Iraq more than eight years after the US-led invasion, however violence has dropped from the peak of sectarian fighting in 2006-2007.
The US military is expected to fully withdraw by 31 December, although Iraqi politicians are trying to decide whether to ask Washington to leave some troops beyond 2011 to continue to train its army and police.
The first incident occurred outside the Ehsan tourist restaurant, a popular rest-stop by a main highway for people travelling through al-Hamza, located just south of Hilla, 100km south of Baghdad.
"I was in the kitchen when suddenly I heard a blast. I heard loud screams, and the sound of people running. I left the kitchen and went outside to see people covered in blood, lying on the ground," said Tahsin Mahmoud, a worker in the restaurant's kitchen.
A Reuters reporter at the site said the entire front of the restaurant was destroyed, with shattered glass on the floor and blood stains covering food, chairs and tables inside the place.
A source in Hilla's main hospital put the toll at 15 people killed and 46 wounded, while a police source at Iraq's provincial joint security centre said 15 people were dead and another 50 wounded.
Deputy Health Minister Khamis al-Saad put the toll at eight killed and 36 wounded.
Iraqi officials often give conflicting tolls.
