At least 23 people were killed and some 110 others wounded in double car bomb explosions outside a government factory in the city of Hilla, capital of Babil province, on Monday, an Interior Ministry source said.

Two booby-trapped cars parked at a parking lot outside the Hilla textile factory in central Hilla, some 100 km south of Baghdad, detonated on Monday afternoon when workers were leaving the factory, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Iraqi security forces sealed off the scene as ambulances and civilian vehicles transferred victims to the city hospitals, he said.

A new wave of violence engulfed Iraq on Monday, including attacks against Iraqi security forces across Baghdad, bomb attacks on houses in and around the Sunni city of Fallujah, and deadly bombings in Suwayra south of Baghdad and Tarmiyah north of the capital.