Iraq: Noufel cafe bombing kills at least 14 amid mounting violence

A bombing at Noufel cafe north of Baghdad left over a dozen people dead, one of several attacks reported Thursday in violence Reuters said took a total of 28 lives. 

Violence has increased in Iraq to such an extent recently that some worry it will lead to open conflict. Seven hundred and fifty people have been killed in July so far, said Reuters.

Iraqi authorities told the Associated Press a bomb was detonated in Noufel cafe in Muqdadiyah, a town north of the capital, killing 16 people and leaving 20 injured on Thursday evening. Reuters said 14 people were killed.

Attackers have been targeting cafes and other communal places frequented by Muslims breaking their day-long fast as part of Islam's holy month of Ramadan. 

Elsewhere in Baghdad, a wedding party was interrupted by a deadly explosion that killed four people, said Reuters, while gunmen working singly shot down four young men.

A roadside bomb in the town of Madeen also reportedly killed three people. In Mosul, which is in northern Iraq, a police officer was killed by militants, a child died in a roadside blast, and a civil worker was gunned down, said Reuters.