The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Baghdad

At least 20 people were killed in Iraq bombings.

A car bomb killed at least 15 people and wounded 45 in central Baghdad on Monday, an Iraqi security official said.

The bomb detonated near a labour ministry building in a commercial area of the Bab al-Muazam neighbourhood.

The wounded included ministry employees and students from the nearby Baghdad University, the official said.

The attack came as combined figures obtained from the interior, defence and health ministries showed that the total number of Iraqis killed in February rose by 33 percent over the previous month, reversing six months of falling death tolls.

The drop in violence during the six months to January was attributed to a surge in US troop numbers, the formation among Sunni tribes of anti-Qaeda fronts and Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr's freezing of the activities of his Mahdi Army militia.

Earlier five people were killed and four wounded when a roadside bomb ripped into a passing minibus in Iraq's troubled Diyala province, police said Sunday.

Police Major Mohammed Al-Karkhi said the attack took place in the village of Al-Kheraiz, east of Baquba, the capital of Diyala some 60 kilometers (35 miles) north of Baghdad.

Separately, a police officer was killed in a roadside bomb attack while on patrol in Buhruz region, just south of Baquba, Karkhi said.

The number of Iraqis killed in February rose by 33 percent over January, reversing a six-month trend of reduced violence, according to official Iraqi figures compiled by AFP.

The US military said that by their count there was only a five percent increase.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said on Monday it had found a grave in northern Iraq containing the bodies of 14 executed people, believed to be either Iraqi police or members of a U.S.-backed neighborhood security unit.