Wave of Iraq Attacks Leave more than 70 Dead

Local Editor

A wave of attacks on Monday, killed 70 people in renewed bloodshed that was coupled with widespread political paralysis all along the Iraqi arena.

The violence, which left more than 230 people wounded, came after several days of relative calm following symbolic moves by Iraq's political leaders to ease tensions among the country's communities after the UN warned violence was ready to "explode".

No group has claimed responsibility for the bloodshed, but militants linked to al-Qaeda have previously attacked security forces and civilians.
Monday's deadliest violence struck the main northern city of Mosul, with a series of five car bombings mostly targeting security forces leaving at least 29 dead and 80 others wounded, officials said.

"We have received many corpses," said Anwar al-Juburi, a doctor at Mosul General Hospital.
"Most of them were members of the security forces."

In parallel, authorities declared a curfew in the city in the aftermath of the violence.
Ten more people were killed in violence in the northern province of Kirkuk and the nearby towns of Tuz Khurmatu and Suleiman Bek.
Blasts in the town of Madain and neighborhood of Baghdad left five more dead.

Earlier on Monday, two car bombs and a suicide attack -- all of which went off near-simultaneously -- in a wholesale fruit and vegetable market in the town of Judaida al-Shat in restive Diyala province, killed 13 people.
The unrest comes amid a surge in attacks in Iraq, with violence in May pushing the month's death toll to the highest such figure since 2008, raising concerns of a revival of the all-out sectarian war that blighted the country in 2006 and 2007.

The UN envoy to Iraq Martin Kobler has warned the violence is "ready to explode".

In a bid to ease tensions, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has in recent days met with two of his arch rivals -the speaker of parliament and the president of the autonomous Kurdish region.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team