A car bomb exploded outside a police station in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday, killing at least five people and injuring 53 others, police said.
The blast followed a night of clashes between United States troops and insurgents that left 10 dead and 27 wounded in the troubled city of Fallujah, west of the capital. Northwest of Baghdad, insurgents detonated a bomb late on Saturday that wounded four US troops, who shot dead one attacker, the military said.
In central Baghdad, guerrillas set off a roadside bomb on Sunday that killed two civilians and wounded two others, said Fawad Allah, an officer at Karradah police station. The blast sent plumes of black smoke rising above Abu Nawas street, on the eastern banks of the Tigris River.
The 8am blast in Mosul occurred when a white four-wheel drive vehicle sped into a restricted entrance outside the Summar police station, prompting guards to open fire, said Abdella Zuheir, a policeman at the scene. The vehicle then came to halt and exploded, he said.
The bomb killed at least five people, including three police officers, said AbdelAzil Hafoudi, an officer at al-Salam hospital. He said 53 people were also wounded, among them eight police officers.
A US military spokesperson confirmed the attack and put the toll at three dead and 49 wounded. He said no coalition forces were involved.
Insurgents have been pressing a campaign to destabilise the interim government despite last month’s transfer of sovereignty from the US occupation authority. About 160 000 coalition troops, mostly Americans, remain in Iraq.
”We were expecting such terrorist attacks against us,” Zuheir said. ”This is a cowardly act.”
Witnesses said the police station was also damaged, along with five cars and several nearby shops.
A 3m-wide crater could be seen at the site and shattered glass and debris littered the road. The engine of one car lay overturned. One policeman sat outside the station weeping.
In Fallujah, at least 10 people were killed and 27 wounded during fighting late on Saturday and early Sunday in the eastern part of the city, hospital officials said.
In an earlier round of fighting in Fallujah on Thursday and Friday, US forces said they killed 20 Iraqi insurgents. Hospital officials said 13 Iraqis, mainly women and children, died and 14 were injured. — Sapa-AP