Bombs in Baghdad and northern Iraq kill 41

Vehicle bombs in Baghdad and northern Iraq killed 41 people on Monday, police said, the latest of several major attacks since US troops

withdrew from towns and cities in June.

Two truck bombs killed 25 people and wounded 75 near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police said. Last week, a suicide car bomber killed 38 people as they left a Shia Muslim mosque just outside Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad.

The truck bombs flattened some 30 homes in the predominantly Shia village of Khazna, 20 km (12 miles) north of Mosul. Bombings and shootings are reported almost daily in and around Mosul, capital of Nineveh province, where disputes between Arabs and Kurds threaten to split the region and inflame tensions that could threaten Iraq's long-term stability.

In Baghdad, two car bombs targeting labourers killed 16 people and wounded 81 in predominantly Shia areas in the southwest of the capital, police said.

The insurgency in Iraq has waned in the last 18 months, but has remained stubborn in Mosul and a few other areas. Several large-scale attacks in recent weeks have raised doubts about the capability of Iraqi forces to cope alone after US combat troops withdrew from urban centres in June. Last week, a string of bombings targeted Shia Muslims in Baghdad and northern Iraq.