U.S. breached contract with Iraq -- report

BAGHDAD, July 9 (UPI) -- Security officials in Ninawa province said U.S. forces violated a security agreement with Iraq as the country was hit with a series of deadly attacks Thursday.

U.S. military forces under the terms of a bilateral security pact with Baghdad were required to pull out of cities and villages by June 30.

Security officials in the Hamdaniya district in eastern Mosul in Ninawa province said a U.S. patrol entered the district in violation of the security pact, the Voices of Iraq news agency reports.

U.S. military officials had worried prior to the June 30 deadline that Mosul may require special consideration in regard to the security agreement.

Meanwhile, two suicide bombers detonated their explosive vests Thursday in the al-Qala region in Talafar, about 30 miles west of Mosul. A morning attack struck a counter-terrorism official and his family, while a later attack struck onlookers, killing at least 34 others.

Coordinated attacks in the Sadr City district of Baghdad killed as many as six people when bombs went off in an outdoor market.

Iraq has witnessed a rise in violence in the months leading up to the June deadline for U.S. troops, though the violence is not at the levels seen when the country teetered on the brink of civil war in 2007.