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10 Iraqis killed in Mosul car bomb attack A suspected suicide car bomb exploded in front of the mayor's office in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday killing 10 civilians and wounding around 100, the U.S. military, Iraqi police and witnesses said.
The blast went off at about 9 a.m. (1 a.m. EDT) when the street was full of people heading to work. It caused extensive damage to the city hall, which houses the mayor's offices, and several other buildings in the area.
Police said the mayor, Salem al-Hadj Isa, who is also the head of the local province's security commission, was the blast's target, but he was unharmed.
An earlier car bomb blast in front of a U.S. base in the town of Baquba, 40 miles north of Baghdad, killed at least four people and wounded 11.
Witnesses said the Mosul bomb was placed in an orange and white taxi -- ubiquitous in Iraq -- which was carrying three people when it detonated as the mayor's convoy was passing.
The mayor's office said several of his bodyguards were wounded in the explosion, which destroyed at least nine vehicles.
While the U.S. military statement said 10 people were killed, checks at Mosul's three hospitals showed only three people brought in dead from the attack and 38 wounded.
Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, has seen frequent outbreaks of violence over the past year, with several senior local officials killed in drive-by shootings, car-bomb blasts or suicide attacks. |
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