Attacks kill 14 in Iraq

At least 14 people were killed in bomb attacks on Wednesday, including a suicide bombing against an Iraqi general who escaped unharmed, the officer and security officials said.

A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-filled car against the convoy of General Riyadh Jalal Tauffiq, the head of the security operations in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul and its surrounding province of Nineveh.

"The bomber drove his car into my convoy in the Al-Faisaliya neighborhood of east Mosul," general Tauffiq said.

"When my guards tried to arrest him, he detonated his car. Seven people were killed, including five civilians," he said, adding that 19 people were wounded. The US military said "eight Iraqi civilians killed, 33 civilians were wounded and 4 Iraqi soldiers were wounded" in what it said was a dual car bomb attack against the general.

U.S. forces claim that Mosul, the third largest city of Iraq, is the last urban bastion of al-Qaida.

The US and Iraqi forces are currently engaged in a military crackdown in Mosul that began on May 14.

Six people were also killed in two near simultaneous bomb attacks in the Sunni city of Fallujah in western Iraq's Anbar province, security officials said.

The bombs exploded at around 6:30 a.m. within minutes of each other near a bank in central Fallujah, the former Sunni rebel bastion in the western province of Anbar.

Eighteen people were wounded in the blasts.

The dead included four policemen, a security official said, adding that the second bomb went off as officers were aiding victims of the first attack.

Fallujah and Anbar province, once an insurgent stronghold, are now considered a symbol of stability after the violence there dropped significantly since late 2006.

© AFP