Iraq bomb blasts kill dozens
Updated on 10 August 2009
More than 50 people have been killed in a series of deadly bomb attacks in Baghdad and Northern Iraq, raising fears of a return to sectarian violence.
Just weeks after American troops withdrew from urban areas, it also leaves serious questions over the ability of Iraq's own security forces to keep the peace.
Two truck bombs exploded within minutes of each other in the mainly Shia village of al-Khazna, near Mosul.
Two children were killed by a roadside bomb north of Tikrit and nine separate bombs went off across Baghdad during the day, killing at least 24 people.
Last week, a suicide car bomber killed 38 people as they left a Shia Muslim mosque just outside Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad.
Bombings and shootings are reported almost daily in and around Mosul, capital of Nineveh province, where disputes between Arabs and Kurds threaten to split the region and inflame tensions that could threaten Iraq's long-term stability.
The insurgency in Iraq has waned in the last 18 months, but has remained stubborn in Mosul and a few other areas.
Several large-scale attacks in recent weeks have raised doubts about the capability of Iraqi forces to cope alone after US combat troops withdrew from urban centres in June.
Last week, a string of bombings targeted Shia Muslims in Baghdad and northern Iraq.
