By Paul Tait
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 42 people were killed inviolence across Iraq on Tuesday, including 14 mourners from onefamily when a roadside bomb hit a bus in a southern province,security officials said.
Police at the general hospital in Nassiriya, 375 km (235miles) south of Baghdad, said the casualties from the roadsidebomb included women and children. Survivors said the bombappeared to target a passing U.S. military convoy.
Violence has fallen across Iraq by 60 percent since lastJune, but Tuesday's attacks underlined how fragile thosehard-won security gains are.
At least 10 and as many as 22 people were wounded in theroadside blast in southern Dhi Qar province, officials said.
Police said the bus was carrying members of a familyreturning from mourning rites for a dead relative in the holyShi'ite city of Najaf when it was hit about 60 km (40 miles)south of Dhi Qar's capital Nassiriya.
"There was blood and human flesh in the bus and on thefloor. Shoes of men, women and children were everywhere," busdriver Zaji Abdul Hussein told Reuters afterwards.
Rahman Shaker, 60, covered in blood after carrying hisbadly wounded wife from the wreckage, said a U.S. convoy hadjust passed on the other side of the road when the bomb wentoff.
"I saw my wife covered in blood and took her out of thebus," Shaker said. "There were bodies covered in bloodyblankets, and people screaming."
CLASHES
In Kut, 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad, at least10 people were killed in clashes between security forces andthe Mehdi Army militia loyal to anti-U.S. Shi'ite clericMoqtada al-Sadr, a source at Kut's al-Zahraa hospital said.
The dead included three young boys and 28 people, includingat least five policemen, were wounded, the hospital sourcesaid.
Sadr, who led the Mehdi Army in two uprisings against U.S.forces in 2004, last month renewed a six-month ceasefire firstannounced last August. That ceasefire has been praised by U.S.commanders for contributing to declining violence.
There was no indication of what caused the Kut clashes, butSadr issued a statement at the weekend authorising his militiato act in self-defence if they were attacked.
In separate clashes north of the capital, police said fourIraqi policemen, four gunmen and a civilian were killed in anattack on a security checkpoint in Mosul, which the U.S.military says is al Qaeda's last major urban stronghold inIraq.
In Dhuluiya, also north of Baghdad, a suicide car bomberkilled five people, including three members of a neighbourhoodsecurity unit, and wounded 14 in an attack on a checkpoint,police Lieutenant-Colonel Ibrahim al-Jubouri said.
U.S. military spokesman Rear Admiral Greg Smithacknowledged at the weekend there had been an increase inviolence in Iraq but said the military did not believe itrepresented a trend.
Earlier on Tuesday, the U.S. military said a roadside bombhad killed three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter in Diyalaprovince northeast of Baghdad on Monday, the same day a suicidebomber killed five U.S. soldiers in the capital.
Monday's deaths took to at least 3,983 the number of U.S.troops killed in Iraq, the toll nearing 4,000 at a time whensetting a timetable for withdrawing troops has become a centralissue in the U.S. presidential election campaign.
In Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, a massgrave containing 20 decomposed bodies, including six women andfive children, was found, police said. Police blamed SunniIslamist al Qaeda for the deaths.
(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))
