BAGHDAD (AFP) – A spate of attacks against Shiite pilgrims and neighbourhoods in Iraq killed at least 26 people on Thursday as the country grapples with a weeks-long political row that has stoked sectarian tensions.

The violence, which wounded dozens, was the worst since attacks killed 60 people across Baghdad on December 22, soon after the crisis erupted when Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi was charged with running a hit squad, and following the US troop pullout.

Unlike the December attacks, which hit a variety of neighbourhoods in Baghdad, Thursday’s violence focused solely on Shiites.

“Political leaders fight each other for power, and we pay the price,” said Ahmed Khalaf, a day labourer who was near the site of attacks in the north Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City, alluding to the political crisis.

“How is it our fault if Hashemi is wanted, or someone else is wanted? Why should we pay instead of them?”

In Kadhimiyah, a Shiite district of northern Baghdad, two car bombs exploded at around 9:00 am (0600 GMT) at adjoining intersections, said officials from the interior and defence ministries.

The blasts killed 14 people and wounded 37 others, the defence official said, while the interior ministry source put the toll at 15 dead and 31 wounded. Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

Several nearby vehicles and shops, as well as the facade of a newly-built hotel, were badly damaged, an AFP journalist said.

“Where are the security forces?” shouted 60-year-old Ashur Abdullah at Al-Zahra intersection in Kadhimiyah.

“Where are the checkpoints? How did this happen here? The responsibility lies with the security forces.”

In Sadr City, a booby-trapped motorcycle exploded at around 7:00 am near a group of day labourers waiting to pick up work, killing seven and wounding 20 others, the interior ministry official said.

A short time later, twin roadside bombs detonated near the district’s main hospital as victims were being ferried in, killing two more people and wounding 15, the official said.

The defence ministry official also put the combined toll from the Sadr City attacks at nine dead and 35 wounded.

Security forces cordoned off the scenes of the blasts, and largely declined to allow journalists to enter, sparking the ire of residents.

“Why are you preventing the press and photographers from entering the scene?” shouted one man in Kadhimiyah who declined to be identified.

“Are you afraid that the world will see your failure?”

And on the outskirts of the southern city of Nasiriyah, a roadside bomb targeting pilgrims walking to the holy shrine city of Karbala for Arbaeen commemorations killed three people and wounded 10 others, the official Dhi Qar provincial website said.

The United States and United Nations have urged calm amid the political standoff and called for national leaders to hold talks to end the row, but such meetings have yet to take place.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has backed off threats to fire ministers from the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc who have boycotted cabinet, the latest move in an apparent toning down of the crisis.

The standoff was sparked by the authorities’ decision to issue an arrest warrant for Hashemi on terror charges.

Hashemi, who is holed up in the northern autonomous Kurdish region, denies the charges and his Iraqiya party has boycotted cabinet and stayed away when parliament re-opened on Tuesday.

Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak, also a member of Iraqiya, has decried Maliki as a dictator “worse than Saddam Hussein”, and the premier has called for him to be sacked.

MPs were due to have considered that request on Tuesday, but the motion was not discussed or voted on.

UN special envoy Martin Kobler, in a statement on Wednesday, “expressed concern about the current political stalemate in the country,” and US Vice President Joe Biden has urged dialogue among top Iraqi leaders.

On December 18, US forces completed their withdrawal from Iraq, where there were once nearly 170,000 American troops on 505 bases.

Now, just 157 remain under the authority of the US embassy, charged with training Iraqi forces to use equipment purchased from the United States.

Violence is down nationwide since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common, especially in Baghdad. A total of 155 people were killed as a result of violence in December, according to official figures.