/ 18 October 2004

Car bombs kill six in Iraq

Two separate car bombs killed six Iraqis and wounded 19 others in the northern city of Mosul, the United States military said on Monday.

On Sunday, a car bomb detonated on a Mosul bridge at about 10.30am, killing five Iraq civilians and wounding 15 other people, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hastings of Task Force Olympia said.

The blast occurred after the driver of the car bomb collided with another car. Several other vehicles were damaged in the explosion, which occurred near the neighbourhoods of Matlan and Shefa.

Police and soldiers secured the area while firefighters battled the blaze, he said. The wounded were taken to local hospitals.

In a separate incident on Sunday, a car bomb detonated in northern Mosul as a civilian convoy drove by, killing one Iraqi and wounding four others.

Three civilian contractors wounded in the 10am (7am GMT) attack were evacuated to a military hospital, One Iraqi civilian was killed and another was injured, he said.

Mosul is 360km north-west of Baghdad. — Sapa-AP