From AP, Dec. 12:

Three car bombs exploded in quick succession in the market district of a southern Iraqi city Wednesday, killing at least 41 people and wounding 150 in a Shiite region that has largely escaped the country's sectarian bloodshed, authorities said.

The police chief in Amarah was fired, an immediate driving ban went into effect, and Iraqi soldiers were deployed on the streets. Hospitals were quickly overwhelmed with the casualties, which mounted as bodies were pulled from the rubble, according to a provincial spokesman.

In a Christian neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, a parked car bomb apparently targeting a passing police patrol killed five civilians, police said. Thirteen people were wounded in the late afternoon explosion in Ghadeer, police said.

Shi'ite militant adopting the tactics generally associated with Sunni insurgents against rival Shi'ites? And meanwhile, without anyone much noticing, attacks continue on Christians and other Iraqi minorities...