Bombs in Baghdad and northern Iraq kill 41

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Vehicle bombs in Baghdad and northern Iraq killed 41 people on Monday, police said, the latest of several major attacks since U.S. troops withdrew from towns and cities in June.

Two truck bombs killed 25 people and wounded 75 near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police said. Last week, a suicide car bomber killed 38 people as they left a Shi'ite Muslim mosque just outside Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad.

The truck bombs flattened some 30 homes in the predominantly Shi'ite village of Khazna, 20 km (12 miles) north of Mosul.

Bombings and shootings are reported almost daily in and around Mosul, capital of Nineveh province, where disputes between Arabs and Kurds threaten to split the region and inflame tensions that could threaten Iraq's long-term stability.

In Baghdad, two car bombs targeting laborers killed 16 people and wounded 81 in predominantly Shi'ite areas in the southwest of the capital, police said.

The insurgency in Iraq has waned in the last 18 months, but has remained stubborn in Mosul and a few other areas.

Several large-scale attacks in recent weeks have raised doubts about the capability of Iraqi forces to cope alone after U.S. combat troops withdrew from urban centers in June.

Last week, a string of bombings targeted Shi'ite Muslims in Baghdad and northern Iraq.

(Reporting by Baghdad bureau; writing by Yara Bayoumy and Mohammed Abbas)