New Iraq attacks push Tuesday death toll to 45

BAGHDAD: Violence in Iraq on Tuesday killed 45 people, after evening attacks raised an earlier toll, the latest in a spate of unrest sparking concerns the country could be sliding back to all-out sectarian war.

The wave of shootings and bombings, which also wounded nearly 100 people, came the same day ministers discussed ways to curb the violence, while the UN has urged Iraq's feuding political leaders to resolve long-running disputes that have paralysed the government and been blamed for its inability to halt the bloodshed.

Tuesday's deadliest violence struck Baghdad, with 18 people dying in bombings across the capital, while a suicide truck bomb just north of the city killed four others, security and medical officials said.

And in the main northern city of Mosul, explosions and gunfire killed 11 people, including a senior police intelligence officer and a tribal sheikh. Attacks in the central cities of Baquba, Beiji and Tikrit, meanwhile, left a dozen others dead.

The latest unrest pushed the death toll in May to 548, the highest such figure in at least a year, according to an AFP tally of figures from official sources.

May is the second consecutive month in which more than 400 people have been killed, culminating in a total of more than 1,000 dead in less than two months.