BREAKING NEWS: TRUCK BOMB IN IRAQ KILLS 19

There are increasing signs that conditions in Iraq are falling apart. Suicide bombers are striking on an almost daily basis, and on Wednesday a suicide bomber drove his truck into a Kurdish village killing 19 and wounding 25.

MOSUL, Sept 10 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into a Kurdish village in north Iraq before dawn on Thursday, killing at least 19 villagers and wounding 25, Iraqi police said.

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The blast in the village of Wardek, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, seemed calculated to fan ethnic tensions between Kurds and Arabs, whose politicians are embroiled in a bitter dispute over claims to territory and oil.

Women and children were among the dead and many houses were destroyed, police said.
Another truck bomber tried to set off a second blast in the village but local Kurdish Peshmerga forces opened fire and killed him before he reached its outskirts, Iraqi police said.

Wardek is 30 km (18 miles) east of the volatile northern city of Mosul, where al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups are making a last stand after being driven out of their former strongholds in Baghdad and western Iraq.

U.S. officials say insurgents are increasingly seeking ways to attack Kurds in ethnically mixed parts of northern Iraq in a bid to foment ethnic violence between them and Arabs at a time of rising tensions over land disputes.