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2 policemen killed, 19 people wounded in Iraq’s Mosul

25 July 2010 04:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Two policemen were killed and 19 people wounded in two attacks in Mosul, capital city of Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh, on Saturday, a provincial police source said, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

Two gunmen armed with pistols fitted with silencers shot dead two policemen at a checkpoint in the al-Risalah neighborhood in western Mosul, the source from the provincial operations command told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In a separate incident, an armed man threw a hand-grenade on a police patrol while passing through the crowded commercial area of the al-Midan in central Mosul, wounding 19 civilians, the source said.

Two women were among the wounded people, the source added.

Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, has been a stronghold of insurgent groups and al-Qaida fighters in the war-torn country.

Nineveh province has been the scene of major security crackdowns by U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces to uproot the insurgency which erupted shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Sporadic attacks are still common in the Iraqi cities more than four months after the country held its landmark parliamentary election which is widely expected to shape the political landscape of the war-torn country.