Insurgents also struck Baghdad on Thursday morning, detonating roadside bombs that killed seven people.

And six died and 31 were injured in coordinated blasts near an outdoor market in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.

A day earlier, bombs in two Shiite villages near Mosul, another northern Iraqi city, killed 16 civilians and injured more than two dozen.

Tensions between Iraqi Arabs and Kurds, who run a virtual mini-state in part of northern Iraq, are considered a major threat to the region's long-term stability.

(CCTV July 10, 2009)