Insurgents attacked cities across Iraq on Monday, June 10 with car bombs, suicide blasts and gun battles that killed more than 70 people in unrest that has deepened fears of a return to civil war, Reuters reported.

No group claimed responsibility for the day-long attacks, most of them in northern Iraq, but officials blame much of the violence that has killed nearly 2,000 people since April on Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda's local wing.

Suicide attacks are the signature of al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate, Islamic State of Iraq, and their growing frequency, in particular so many in one day, appears to indicate the extent to which Islamist insurgents are regrouping.