Iraq violence claims 48 lives

A DOUBLE truck bombing tore through the village of a small Shi’ite ethnic minority near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, while nine blasts wracked Baghdad yesterday in a wave of violence that killed at least 48 people and wounded more than 250.

The attacks provided a grim example of US military warnings that insurgents are targeting Shi’ites in an effort to re-ignite the kind of sectarian violence that nearly tore the country apart in 2006 and 2007.

The US military stressed that, despite the rise in attacks, Shi’ites are showing restraint and not retaliating.