Insurgents targeted Iraqi government buildings and a military convoy in two near-simultaneous bomb attacks yesterday in the northern city of Mosul, killing three people, officials said.
A car bomb exploded inside the government compound in Mosul, the provincial capital of Nineveh, and early reports indicated it was a suicide attack, the military said in a statement. A mortar round destroyed a gas station across the street.
Three people inside the compound were killed and another one was injured in the morning blast, said provincial government spokesman Hazem Jalawi.
Also around 11am, a suicide car bomber attacked a convoy carrying an Iraqi general, slightly injuring him, the military said.
In other news, rebels and US forces battled yesterday in the central Iraqi town of Ramadi, and hospital officials reported three Iraqis were killed during the fighting.
Insurgents bombed one US security patrol and ambushed a separate convoy with small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and an improvised explosive, said 1st Lieutenant Lyle Gilbert. No Americans were injured, he said.
Witnesses said rebels also fired mortar rounds at US forces, whose return volleys included sniper fire.
Meanwhile, the US' top enemy in Iraq claimed the killing of nearly 50 unarmed army recruits in a cold-blooded assault on fledgling security forces slated to take part in a crackdown on rebels before elections due in January.
Insurgents blew up a roadside bomb near a US patrol in central Baghdad on Monday, wounding three Iraqi civilians, the Interior Ministry said. The US military had no immediate word on the blast that went off not far from the Australian embassy.
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