By Paul Tait
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed at least 14mourners travelling by bus in the southern Iraqi province ofDhi Qar on Tuesday, Iraqi police and the British military said.
Police at Nassiriya general hospital said the casualtiesincluded women and children. At least 10 and as many as 22people were wounded, officials said.
Nassiriya police said the bus was carrying members of afamily returning from religious observances for a dead relativein Najaf.
In Dhuluiya, north of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killedfive people, including three members of a neighbourhoodsecurity unit, in an attack on a checkpoint, policeLieutenant-Colonel Ibrahim al-Jubouri said.
Fourteen people were wounded and three houses weredestroyed, he said.
In southern Kut, at least 10 people, including three boys,were killed in clashes between security forces and the MehdiArmy militia loyal to anti-U.S. Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr,a source at Kut's al-Zahraa hospital said.
The source said 28 people were wounded, including at leastfive policemen.
Police said four Iraqi policemen, four gunmen and onecivilian were killed in an attack on a security checkpoint inthe northern city of Mosul, which the U.S. military says is alQaeda's last major urban stronghold in Iraq.
ATTACKS DOWN
Attacks across Iraq have fallen 60 percent since 30,000extra U.S. troops became fully deployed in June, which roughlycoincided with a decision by Sunni Arab tribal leaders to turnagainst Sunni Islamist al Qaeda.
But Tuesday's violence and the deaths of eight U.S.soldiers on Monday show Iraq is far from safe, although a U.S.military spokesman said on Sunday that a spate of recentattacks blamed by the military on al Qaeda do not represent atrend.
Major Tom Holloway, spokesman for British forces in thesouthern city of Basra, said the bus carrying mourners had beenheading south from the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf to Basra whenit was hit by what he called a "massive" roadside bomb.
The explosion took place about 60 km (40 miles) south ofNassiriya, capital of Dhi Qar province.
In Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, a massgrave containing 20 decomposed bodies, including six women andfive children, was found. Police blamed Sunni Islamist al Qaedafor the deaths of those in the grave.
Earlier on Tuesday, the U.S. military said a roadside bombhad killed three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter in volatileDiyala province northeast of Baghdad on Monday, the same day asuicide bomber killed five U.S. soldiers in the capital.
Ethnically and religiously mixed Diyala is one of fourprovinces north of Baghdad where U.S. and Iraqi forces havemounted offensives this year to fight al Qaeda militants andother insurgents who have regrouped in the region.
The bombing in Baghdad, announced by the U.S. military onMonday, was the worst single attack on U.S. forces in the cityin nearly nine months.
Monday's deaths took to at least 3,983 the number of U.S.troops killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March2003. Ten soldiers have been killed this month, compared with81 in the whole of March 2007.
The U.S. death toll is approaching 4,000 at a time whensetting a timetable for withdrawing troops has become a centralissue in the U.S. presidential election campaign.
(For Reuters stories on Iraq five years after the invasion,please click on)
(Additional reporting by Ross Colvin, Mohammad Abbas, AhmedRasheed and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad; Writing by Paul Tait;Editing by Janet Lawrence)
