At least 42 killed in Iraq

BAGHDAD – At least 42 people were killed in violence across Iraq yesterday, including 14 mourners from one family when a roadside bomb hit a bus in a southern province, security officials said.

Police at the general hospital in Nassiriya, 375 km south of Baghdad, said the casualties from the roadside bomb included women and children. Survivors said the bomb appeared to target a passing US military convoy.Violence has fallen across Iraq by 60 per cent since last June, but yesterday’s attacks underlined how fragile those hard-won security gains are.At least 10 and as many as 22 people were wounded in the roadside blast in southern Dhi Qar province, officials said.Police said the bus was carrying members of a family returning from mourning rites for a dead relative in the holy Shi’ite city of Najaf when it was hit about 60 km south of Dhi Qar’s capital Nassiriya.”There was blood and human flesh in the bus and on the floor.Shoes of men, women and children were everywhere,” bus driver Zaji Abdul Hussein told Reuters afterwards.Earlier yesterday, the US military said a roadside bomb had killed three US soldiers and an interpreter in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad on Monday, the same day a suicide bomber killed five US soldiers in the capital.Nampa-ReutersSurvivors said the bomb appeared to target a passing US military convoy.Violence has fallen across Iraq by 60 per cent since last June, but yesterday’s attacks underlined how fragile those hard-won security gains are.At least 10 and as many as 22 people were wounded in the roadside blast in southern Dhi Qar province, officials said.Police said the bus was carrying members of a family returning from mourning rites for a dead relative in the holy Shi’ite city of Najaf when it was hit about 60 km south of Dhi Qar’s capital Nassiriya.”There was blood and human flesh in the bus and on the floor.Shoes of men, women and children were everywhere,” bus driver Zaji Abdul Hussein told Reuters afterwards.Earlier yesterday, the US military said a roadside bomb had killed three US soldiers and an interpreter in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad on Monday, the same day a suicide bomber killed five US soldiers in the capital.Nampa-Reuters