Iraq violence marks sharp rise in July

July was Iraq's deadliest month for more than two years, figures show, amid fears insurgents are exploiting a political power vacuum left by March's inconclusive elections.
Last month, 535 people were killed and 1,000 injured in bomb blasts or other attacks, official Iraqi figures say.
Insurgent attacks have increased in frequency and ferocity since the polls.
Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions that won most seats are still bickering over who should be the next prime minister.
Both former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and incumbent Nouri Maliki insist that they are best placed to lead the war-torn country.
March's elections left Mr Allawi's secular Sunni Iraqiyya alliance with 91 seats, just two ahead of Mr Maliki's mainly Shia coalition.
Both are well short of the 163 seats needed to form a government, meaning that some sort of wider coalition will be needed.
SECTARIAN BLOODSHED
Yesterday, one of the main Shia blocs rejected Mr Maliki's claim to a second term as prime minister, saying it would pull out of coalition talks until his party nominated a new candidate.
The Iraqi National Alliance (INA) came third in March's polls, and had merged with Mr Maliki's second-placed State of Law bloc in June.
Under the new name, National Alliance, it has a total of 159 seats in the new 325-seat parliament, four short of a majority.
"All parties of the INA have agreed that the obstacle is the insistence of nominating Maliki," one of the group's senior members, Qusay al-Suhail, told Reuters news agency.
"That is why we demanded an alternative... The INA's decision is unanimous."
The move is another setback in the process of forming a new government, which analysts predict may take until at least mid-September.
There are fears the ongoing political uncertainty could hinder the planned withdrawal of all but 50,000 US troops from Iraq by the end of August, in preparation for a full military departure by the end of 2011.