The death toll of two bomb explosions on Tuesday in Iraq's southeastern city of Kut has risen to 20, while 50 others were wounded, an Interior Ministry source said.

Security personnel gather at the site of a bomb attack in Kut, 150 km (95 miles) southeast of Baghdad, August 3, 2010. Two bombs exploded in the usually quiet southern city of Kut in Iraq's Wasit province on Tuesday. [Xinhua/Reuters Photo]

The incident took place at around 5:30 p.m. local time (1330 GMT), when a booby-trapped car and a roadside bomb went off one by one in several seconds at the al-Amil district in central Kut, the capital city of Wasit province, some 170 km southeast of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The death toll could continue to rise as many injured were in critical condition, the source said, adding around 10 shops and many cars were seriously damaged.

Columns of black smoke could be seen rising above the scene in the central of the city, the source said, citing local police reports.

Earlier reports said the blasts were caused by three car bombs, and Wasit province's governor said only three people were dead and about 60 others were wounded when interviewed by the official Iraqia television.

Also on Tuesday, a group of suspected al-Qaida militants stormed a police checkpoint near al-Liqaa Square near Mansour district in western Baghdad at dawn, and opened fire from their pistols fitted with silencers, killing five policemen before they fled the scene.

Violence and some high-profile attacks are still common in Iraqi cities as part of recent deterioration in security which shaped a setback to the efforts of the Iraqi government to restore normalcy in the country about five months after violence-torn Iraq held parliamentary elections on March 7.