Violence spikes after months of relative calm

Violence appeared on the rise in Iraq after a day that saw at least 42 people die - numbers that cast in doubt the easing the sectarian deaths that followed a surge of US forces to the country last year.

Iraqi sources confirmed the grisliest attack of Tuesday when 16 passengers on a bus in southern Iraq were killed by a roadside bomb. The US military, however, claimed no one died in the attack, which was targeting a passing military convoy. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.

Dr. Hadi Badr al-Riyahi, head of the Nasiriyah provincial health directorate confirmed yesterday that the attack on the bus traveling from Najaf to Basra killed 16 civilians and wounded 20.