Police: Car bomb kills 4 in northern Iraq

[February 12, 2009]  BAGHDAD (AP) -- A parked car bomb killed four policemen and wounded three people in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday, the latest in a string of recent attacks in a city U.S. officials describe as al-Qaida's last major urban stronghold in the country.

The car bomb targeted a police patrol in eastern Mosul and the wounded included one policeman and two civilians, said a police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Political officials have also been targeted in Mosul. Three unidentified gunmen killed a local Sunni official in the city on Thursday, said a second police official, also speaking on condition of anonymity for the same reason. Abdul-Kareem Khalaf al-Sharabi, deputy chief of the National Dialogue Front in Mosul, was gunned down near his house in western Mosul, he said.

Violence in Iraq is at a five year low, thanks to the surge in U.S. troops in 2007 and more aggressive efforts by the Iraqi government to crack down on Sunni and Shiite militants. But many Sunni extremists are believed to have fled north after being driven from Baghdad and central Iraq, exacerbating violence in Mosul.

Five Iraqi security personnel and a senior member of the Sunni Islamic Party were killed in a series of attacks in Mosul on Wednesday. On Monday, a suicide car bombing killed four U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint in the city.

Periodic attacks have continued in other areas of Iraq as well. Two bombs hidden in garbage cans in the central Iraqi city of Baqouba exploded almost simultaneously Thursday, wounding three people, said a police official. A third bomb was defused in the same area, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Also Thursday, a top Iraqi official confirmed that Iraq is holding four former detainees from the Guantanamo detention facility to see whether they pose a threat.

Acting Justice Minister Safaaulddin al-Safi told The Associated Press that a judge has approved their continued detention for two weeks while authorities interrogate and investigate them.

The four were arrested in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo before being handed over to the Iraqis last month.

Al-Safi said the four were not wanted for crimes in Iraq but authorities want to make sure they pose no threat if set free.

President Barack Obama has ordered the detention center in Cuba to be closed within a year as part of his overhaul of U.S. national security policy.

[Associated Press; By HAMID AHMED]

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