Car bomb kills at least nine in Mosul
- 12 years ago
At least nine people are killed when a car bomb exploded inside a residential complex housing displaced Shi'ite Muslims in the Northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
The bombing is the latest in a series of attacks on Shi'ite targets since December when Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government ordered the arrest of a Sunni vice president, touching off a crisis threatening Iraq's fragile power-sharing government.
(SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS, SAYING:
"The car bomb targeted innocent people, shop owners and people sitting in their homes, children and women. Children who were shopping were also among the victims."
Police said they found another car bomb at the scene and closed the area for several hours to defuse it.
Mosul, in northern Iraq, was once an al Qaeda stronghold, and witnessed some of the fiercest fighting during the war that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The eastern outskirts of Mosul form part of the disputed areas between the central government and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region Government in the north.
The disputed territories between Iraqi Arabs and Kurds are seen as a flashpoints for possible conflict after the last American troops left Iraq in December.
Deborah Lutterbeck, Reuters
The bombing is the latest in a series of attacks on Shi'ite targets since December when Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government ordered the arrest of a Sunni vice president, touching off a crisis threatening Iraq's fragile power-sharing government.
(SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS, SAYING:
"The car bomb targeted innocent people, shop owners and people sitting in their homes, children and women. Children who were shopping were also among the victims."
Police said they found another car bomb at the scene and closed the area for several hours to defuse it.
Mosul, in northern Iraq, was once an al Qaeda stronghold, and witnessed some of the fiercest fighting during the war that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The eastern outskirts of Mosul form part of the disputed areas between the central government and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region Government in the north.
The disputed territories between Iraqi Arabs and Kurds are seen as a flashpoints for possible conflict after the last American troops left Iraq in December.
Deborah Lutterbeck, Reuters