40 killed in serial blasts across Iraq

The deadliest blast on Monday was a double truck bombing in Khazna village,just east of Mosul,as the members of the Shiite Shabak ethnic group who live there were still sleeping.

Two explosives-laden trucks exploded nearly simultaneously and less than 500 yards (meters) apart,killing at least 23 people and wounding 128,according to police and hospital officials.

Those killed were all civilians because the trucks were parked in an alley and were not near a police station.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack,but it bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents who remain active in Mosul and surrounding areas.

On Friday,a suicide truck bomber devastated a mosque used by another minority,Shiite Turkomen,killing 44 people north of the city that the U.S. military has dubbed al-Qaida in Iraq’s last urban redoubt.

Bombs also continue to strike neighbourhoods in Baghdad despite security gains.

The first bomb was hidden in a pile of trash when it exploded about 5:50 a.m. near a group of construction workers drinking tea and looking for day jobs in the religiously mixed neighbourhood of Amil,killing at least seven people and wounding 46,officials said.

About 10 minutes later a car bomb targeting construction workers elsewhere in western Baghdad,killing at least 10 people and wounding 35,according to police.

Three bombs also exploded in the mainly Sunni neighbourhood of Azamiyah shortly before 7 a.m.,wounding a member of a government-backed paramilitary group,an army official said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.