Kirkuk, Iraq News

The overall level of violence in Iraq has increased markedly in recent weeks as al-Qaeda in Iraq gains in strength.

New attacks in three Iraqi cities have killed at least eight people and wounded dozens more -- a day after more than 70 died in assaults on Shi'ite Muslims, stoking fears of all-out sectarian war with minority Sunnis.

In this file photo from May 15, 2013, residents gather at the site of a bomb attack in Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad.

At least 13 people have been killed in new bomb attacks in Iraq, a day after a wave of bombings across the country left at least 70 people dead.

A police officer says a suicide blast at a checkpoint, followed by militants who opened fire at Iraqi troops, has killed three soldiers in Tarmiyah.

Here is a look at the deadliest attacks in Iraq since the withdrawal of U.S. troops on Dec.

Scores of people were killed in Iraq Friday, in a day marked by several bombings including two outside a Sunni Muslim mosque in the Iraqi city of Baquba after Friday prayers, killing at least 43 worshipers in one of the deadliest attacks in a month-long surge in sectarian violence.

Baghdad police said the first blast hit a bus and taxi stop during the morning rush hour in the city's eastern Sadr City neighborhood.

At least 15 people were killed Saturday in Baghdad and Anbar provinces, police said, in what appeared to be a continuation of sectarian violence.

This spring, National Geographic Young Explorer Julia Harte is traveling along the Tigris River from Southern Iraq to Southeastern Turkey, documenting ancient sites and modern communities along the river before they are transformed by the IlA su Dam, an 11 billion-cubic-meter hydroelectric dam that will generate 2 percent of Turkey's power.

People gather at the site of a bomb attack in Baquba, about 50 km northeast of Baghdad, May 17, 2013.

A series of bomb attacks has targeted Sunnis in Iraq, killing 70 people and increasing fears of renewed sectarian conflict.

Family members of Mohammed Aboud, chant slogans against the Sunni-dominated Free Syrian Army rebel group and the al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra during his funeral in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, May 17, 2013.

SPEAKING FREELY Erdogan drags heavy bag to Washington By Egemen B Bezci Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be greeted by Barack Obama at the White House today after waiting more than six months for an appointment since the US president was elected for a second term in November.

Bombs tore through markets in Baghdad and a suicide attacker blew himself up in a mosque in northern Iraq in violence across the country on Thursday that killed at least 25 people and extended a surge in sectarian-tinged bloodshed.

Attacks killed 13 people and wounded more than 35 on Thursday, officials said, as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed violence plaguing Iraq on "sectarian hatred." Iraqis gather around burnt vehicles at the site of a car bombing at a market in Baghdad's impoverished district of Sadr City.

Mourners carry the coffin of a man killed due to Tuesday's liquor stores attack in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, May 15, 2013.

At least 34 people have been killed in series of bomb attacks across Iraq, several of which targeted mainly Shia districts of Baghdad, officials say.

As American troops were pulling out of Iraq in 2010, the U.S. effort to stabilize the country resembled the task of an exhausted man who had just pushed a huge boulder up a steep hill.

BAGHDAD: Bombings in Iraq, including a series of blasts mainly targeting Shia areas of Baghdad, killed at least 25 people and wounded 68 yesterday, security and medical officials said.