A series of bombings and shootings claimed the lives of up to 60 in Iraq on Tuesday, many soldiers among them. A suicide car bomber killed at least ten outside a bank in central Baghdad while another bomber targeting a police checkpoint injured two others

More than 20 soldiers died when a roadside bomb struck a bus travelling between Tikrit and Baiji, north of Baghdad. Other attacks in the north and north-west of the country killed 12. Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he will send thousands more troops to deal with escalating sectarian violence which has sparked fears of civil war.