Car bombs explode in Baghdad, Mosul

A car bomb in eastern Mosul killed three and wounded 19 on Tuesday, a health official said. Most of the dead and wounded were civilians, while three Iraqi soldiers were among the wounded. The bomb exploded at about 1230pm on a busy commercial street near the University of Mosul outside a popular restaurant. Mosul is about 220 miles (350 kilometres) north of the capital city of Baghdad, where another bombing on Tuesday left six people wounded. The roadside bomb exploded in the Al-Mashtal neighbourhood in southeastern Baghdad, police officials said. On Monday, gunmen killed Saad Abass, the head of an anti-Al Qaeda Awakening Council, and his nephew as they drove in Falluja, health and police officials there said. Saad Abass was the head of the Awakening Council in Al-Karma. Such councils, also known as the Sons of Iraq, mainly consist of Sunni Arab fighters who turned against Al-Qaeda in late 2006. The US-backed movement is credited as one of the main factors that contributed to a drop in violence. Despite such attacks, officials say overall violence in Iraq has dropped dramatically since the peak of the sectarian conflict between 2005 and 2007.