5 car bombings rip through Mosul, kill 23 Iraqis

At least 23 people, mainly police and military men, were killed and 42 others wounded when five bomb-laden cars blew up in Mosul, north Iraq, on Monday. Gunfire was heard following the attacks which targeted police stations and military patrols at various parts of the city, an insider of Ninawa operations command told KUNA. The first blast took place in Wadi Hajar district, south Mosuk; it led to the killing of a police officer and four others, and injured eight people. A suicide attacker blew his car in the western Tammoz 30 neighborhood as a military convoy was passing; six soldiers were killed and 10 others injured, the source said. A similar attack targeted a military checkpoint in Al-Tenk neighborhood, killed two soldiers and a civilian, and wounded 11 others. The attack was followed by a gun battle at the checkpoint between the military troops and the unknown assailants. Another car bombing targeted the police station of Tammoz 17 neighborhood, killed five policemen and wounded eight. The assailants tried to break into the station but the police forces managed to rout them after a 30-minute confrontation. In Al-Zanjabili district a car bombing killed four members of a police patrol and injured four others. Sporadic fighting continued in the right side of the city before the local security forces imposed curfew.