Baghdad: Suicide car bombers struck twice today in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least six people and wounding dozens of others, US and Iraqi officials said. A car bomb killed seven other people in Baghdad.
The series of attacks shows the ongoing security challenges facing Iraq as the US shifts responsibility to this country's own soldiers and police following the sharp decline in violence since last year.
The first attack in Mosul occurred when a suicide car bomber attacked a US patrol, the US military said. There were no American casualties, but five Iraqis were killed, including three young boys, the US said.
Another suicide car bomber targeted Iraqi police in Mosul 360 kilometers north-west of Baghdad. Twenty-five people were wounded, the US said.
In Baghdad, a parked car bomb exploded in a commercial street in the Bayaa district, killing seven people and wounding nine others, police said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release the information.
The south-western Baghdad neighborhood was the scene of bitter Sunni-Shiite fighting until last year when the US troop "surge," the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida and a cease-fire by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr brought down violence to its lowest level in four years.
"Several car bombings have occurred on this street but no measures were taken to prevent these events," one Bayaa resident, who gave only his nickname Abu Ibrahim, told Associated Press Television News. "Where is the government? Where are the security officials to prevent such attacks?"
