At least 36 people have been killed in three car bombings, which took place within 10 minutes of each other, near hotels in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, police said.
At least 71 other people were wounded in the blasts, which came during rush hour on Monday.
The blasts happened close to the Sheraton and Palestine Hotels in the centre of the city, and the Babil hotel in the south.
The hotels are located outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, where many government and international agencies are situated.
Ahmed Rushdi, a journalist in Baghdad, said the hotels appeared to be the targets of the blasts.
"These hotels were supposed to have major security because they are open for all the foreign journalists," he told Al Jazeera.
"Targeting these major hotels means that everyone here in Baghdad is targeted."
Alaa Makki, an Iraqi member of parliament, told Al Jazeera that legislators have called on Iraqi security forces to do more to fortify the capital.
"We have criticized the security ministry and ministers and the leader of the armed forces in the last session and we were waiting for them to do something about the security situation," he said.
"The area indicates that there might have been infiltration in the security forces, because those areas attacked were so secure and isolated. They were in the secure Green Zone where some TV channels and a hotel with VIPs going regularly are.
"So, there is criticism that there have been infiltrations in the forces, that they are not well-organized and unequipped to control security here."
Al-Majid executed
The blasts came on the same day that Ali Hassan al-Majid, the cousin of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, was executed in Iraq for crimes against humanity.
Al-Majid, nicknamed "Chemical Ali", was sentenced to death last week.
He was executed by hanging on Monday, a government spokesman said.
Ahmed Chalabi, the former head of Iraq's de-Baathification Commission and current head of the Iraqi Congress Party, said it was not clear if the execution and the bombings were related.
"I cannot speculate on this issue," he told Al Jazeera.
PHOTO CAPTION
Iraqi police secure the site of a car bomb attack in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Jan. 25, 2010.
Al-Jazeera