Deadly violence in Iraq

Sunday's deadliest attack occurred near a Shiite shrine in the southern town of Amara, where security officials said back-to-back car bombings killed at least 12 people and wounded more than 50 others.

In another major incident overnight, gunmen and a suicide bomber driving a car killed 11 soldiers at a military base in Dujail, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad .

Police sources said at least seven others were injured in the attack.

A car bomb attack outside a military base 10 kilometers outside of the northern city of Kirkuk killed seven police recruits. Police sources said at least another five people were killed and more than 50 injured in other attacks in the city.

Police said another car bomb exploded near the honorary French consulate in Nasiriyah, south of Baghdad. The city's website and a French diplomat said one person was killed and another wounded.

More people were killed in several other blasts in the towns of Samarra, Basra and Tuz Khurmato.

Fragile security

Sunni insurgents, including former members of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baathist party, and al Qaeda militants have carried out a series of major attacks this year that are seen as a bid to fuel political and sectarian conflicts in the country.

The Iraqi government - which is itself riven by infighting among Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish political factions - is still struggling to maintain security in the country after the last US troops left nine months ago.

According to government estimates, at least 325 people were killed in attacks in July alone, the highest monthly death toll since August 2010.

Bloodshed in Iraq, however, is down significantly from its peak in 2006 and 2007, when thousands were killed in sectarian violence, bringing the country to the brink of civil war.

tj/pfd (Reuters, AP, AFP)