Police in Iraq have found the bodies of 15 men in an abandoned minibus, bringing the total number recovered in the past 24 hours to at least 55, the Interior Ministry has said.

The latest victims had their hands and feet bound, and were shot in the head and chest, said Major Falah al-Mohammedawi, an official with the ministry that oversees police.

The minibus containing the bodies was found on the main road between Amariyah and Ghazaliyah, two notorious, mostly Sunni west Baghdad neighbourhoods - not far from where a minibus containing 18 bodies was discovered last week.

The grim finds underscored fears that Sunday's deadly explosions in a Shiite slum would unleash a new round of sectarian killing between Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims and minority Sunnis.

A number of the bodies - including four strung-up from electricity pylons - were discovered in Sadr City where car bombs and mortar fire killed at least 58 people and injured more than 200 on Sunday night.

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