The death toll is climbing in Iraq following this morning's coordinated gun-and-bomb attacks, with the AP putting the number at 84, making it the deadliest day this year. A police spokesman said a suicide bomber detonated himself outside a textile factory south of Baghdad where a crowd was trying to help victims of two earlier car bombs, raising the toll there to at least 45. Gunmen using silenced weapons also killed 7 Iraqi soldiers and policemen at checkpoints in Baghdad, and a roadside bomb in Baghdad killed another 2.
Attacks in the northern and western Iraq also added to the toll. The use of silencers was a new tactic for the Sunni insurgency. They wanted to show "that they can attack us in different parts of the city at the same time because they have cells everywhere," an Iraqi government source told Reuters. The attacks came after several recent US and Iraqi military victories against al-Qaeda. The weakened group and affiliated Sunni Islamists are now out to stage significant attacks to prove that they are still powerful, officials say. (More Iraq stories.)
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