A pair of car bombings in Mosul killed two Iraqi soldiers and an undetermined number of civilians Wednesday in the troubled northern city, the US military said. A white van in eastern Mosul tried to swerve inside a joint convoy of US and Iraqi military vehicles, but exploded prematurely, killing an undetermined number of civilians, Sergeant Chris Schaeffer told AFP. A second car parked on a street, not far away from the first blast, exploded, killing two Iraqi soldiers, Schaeffer said. A pair of soldiers were also wounded in the second attack.
The violence in Iraq's third largest city followed the deaths of three Iraqi soldiers Tuesday when they were hit by a roadside bomb and then gunmen fired on them from a mosque, the military said.
The troops, travelling with US soldiers, had been delivering electrical heaters to schools when the insurgents attacked them.
Mosul was plunged into all-out war between US forces and insurgents in early November.
The city of 1.5 million people has seen US and Iraqi troops boost their numbers ahead of the January 30 national elections, amid doubts whether polls can take place in the insurgency haven.
The US military, which has boosted its numbers in the city to between 6,000 to 8,000, says it has stepped up operations in Mosul, netting 79 insurgents since January 5 and seizing large numbers of weapons.
After the December 21 suicide bombing of a US base in the city, which killed 22 people, the US and Iraqi governments said they have arrested three of the top four followers in Mosul of al Qaeda frontman in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.