Authorities in Iraq have said that a number of blasts have rocked the capital, Baghdad, resulting in the deaths of at least 10 people as a political crisis continues in the country following the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Officials said Thursday's blasts struck across the city, including the Karrada neighborhood where television footage displayed expansive plumes of smoke emanating from the blast site. The explosions wounded tens of people.

The attacks come as Iraq's Shi'ite leadership seeks the arrest of Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi on charges that he schemed to murder other government officials.

But Hashemi said Wednesday the allegations are politically motivated by the prime minister, whom Hashemi says wanted to consolidate power when U.S. troops left this month.

Hashemi said that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki controls the security and intelligence forces and does not allow other elected officials to interfere. The vice president fled to the semiautonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq to escape a warrant for his arrest issued this week.

Hashemi, a Sunni, says the United States failed to leave behind a democratic model in Iraq, leaving the nation vulnerable to interference from its Iranian neighbors.

Earlier Wednesday, Prime Minister Maliki, at a Baghdad news conference, called on Kurdish authorities to hand over the vice president.

A spokesman for Iraq's Interior Ministry says three of Hashemi's bodyguards confessed they planted bombs targeting Iraqi government and security officials with Hashemi's backing.

The alleged plot and a call last week by Mr. Maliki for a no-confidence vote in parliament against another leading Sunni politician, Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, have heightened political tension in Iraq.

On Tuesday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden urged Iraqi leaders to settle their political differences.

The White House said Biden telephoned Mr. Maliki and the speaker of the Council of Representatives, Osama al-Nujaifi. It said Biden stressed the urgent need for the prime minister and the leaders of other political blocs to meet and work through their differences.

Both Hashemi and Mutlaq are leaders of Iraq's mostly Sunni Iraqiya political bloc, part of the coalition government. Iraqiya's members walked out of parliament on Saturday, accusing Mr. Maliki of seizing power.