MOSUL, Iraq – Eight people were killed and 19 wounded on Saturday
when a suicide bomber blew himself up at an Iraqi army checkpoint next to a
market in the northern city of Mosul, police and hospital sources said.
Attacks against Iraq's army and police are rising as they prepare to take
full responsibility for security in the country ahead of a full withdrawal of
U.S. troops by December 31, more than eight years after the U.S.-led invasion of
Iraq.
"Eight killed, 19 wounded. Five soldiers were killed and three civilians, and
two soldiers are among the wounded," Nineveh province police Lieutenant Colonel
Mahmoud al-Jibouri told Reuters. The toll is final.
A hospital source confirmed the number of dead and wounded and said the
attack had taken place at a popular market in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles)
north of Baghdad.
"The suicide bomber exploded himself at the entrance where Iraqi soldiers
were manning a checkpoint to frisk people entering the market," the hospital
source said.
"The attack took place at the peak business hours for this market."
Mosul is regarded as Sunni Islamist al Qaeda's last remaining urban base
after the group was kicked out of many parts of Baghdad and western Anbar
province by U.S. troops allied with local Sunni Arab tribal militias in
2007.
Although violence has dropped sharply since the height of sectarian warfare
in 2006/07, bombings and killings remain a daily occurrence and insurgents are
still capable of carrying out lethal attacks.
At least eight people were killed and 17 wounded on Thursday when a suicide
bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in Diyala province. Reuters
