A series of bomb attacks against Shiites near the northern city of Mosul and in Baghdad killed at least 36 people and wounded nearly 100 others. These attacks were the second devastating instances of strikes near the Shiite Turkmen mosques in recent months. On a Friday in June, a truck bomb exploded in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing 68 people and wounding 200. Insurgents linked to al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a home-grown militant group, remain active in Mosul1.

• 1. Sam Dagher, “Scores Killed in Spate of Attacks on Shiites in Iraq,” New York Times, August 8, 2009, at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/world/middleeast/08iraq.html?hp