Iraq Blasts Toll Rises to 500

The death toll from Tuesday's series of suicide truck bombings in northern Iraq may exceed 500, with scores more lying injured in hospitals, CNN reports. The attacks were reportedly launched by al-Qaeda against the Yazidi, a pre-Islamic sect, spotlighting the religious warfare that US troop surge sought to quell.

The bombings were the deadliest terrorist operation since the fall of Saddam Hussein and could become the worst such attack since 9/11. While the extra American troops have shielded Baghdad from many insurgent bombings, terrorist activity has increased elsewhere in the country, especially in northern Iraq, which enjoyed relative peace before the troop surge, reports Time magazine.  (More Iraq stories.)