Bombs kill 34 in Baghdad, three UK troops in Basra: 20 beheaded bodies found

A car bomb killed 25 people on Thursday at a busy intersection in Baghdad where minibuses pick up and drop off passengers, while 20 beheaded bodies were found on a river bank south of the capital, Iraqi police said.
Another car bomb in Baghdad targeting motorists queuing for petrol killed five people, police said. Mortar bombs also killed four people in two separate neighbourhoods in the city.
In the southern city of Basra, a roadside bomb killed three British soldiers and wounded another, the British military said. The latest attacks underscore the strength of militants in Iraq despite the arrival of 28,000 additional US troops. The unrelenting violence is pushing Iraq to the brink of all-out civil war between majority Shias and minority Sunni Arabs.
Maliki made the comments in a speech to anti-terrorism officials in Baghdad, a statement from his office said. "The prime minister ... warned of a widespread and dangerous plan by the terrorist al Qaeda organisation to target a number of countries which suffer religious and sectarian problems," the statement said, without naming any countries. "The confessions by members of al Qaeda captured in Iraq uncovered a plan to cause panic and insecurity in those countries."
The deadliest car bomb in Baghdad exploded in the Shi'ite district of Bayaa. The blast, which went off during the morning rush hour, wounded 40 people and destroyed dozens of vehicles.
"It was a horrible explosion. Many, many people have been killed," said witness Aqeel Kadhim, saying pickup trucks and ambulances rushed to take away the dead and wounded.
GRUESOME DISCOVERY:
In the Sunni Arab town of Salman Pak south of Baghdad, locals made the gruesome discovery of 20 beheaded men on the bank of the River Tigris, police said.
All the victims were wearing civilian clothes and had their hands and legs bound, police said, adding some of the heads could not be found. Iraqi police had cordoned off the area. Beheadings are a common tactic used by radical Sunni groups such as al Qaeda, but the discovery of such large numbers of victims in one group is rare. Police had no information on the possible motive or exactly where the men were from.
The British soldiers in Basra were on foot at the time of the blast in the south-east of the city, spokesman Major David Gell said. They were part of a routine convoy heading out of Basra and had dismounted from their armoured vehicles.