Suicide bomber kill 9 in Iraq

Mosul: A suicide truck bomber killed nine people and wounded 22 in an attack on the police headquarters of an Iraqi town near the Syrian border on Thursday, police said.

Bodies were still buried in the rubble of the destroyed buildings in the town of Rabea, northwest of Mosul in northern Iraq, police said. Four policemen were among the dead.

A police source said the truck was packed with a large quantity of explosives and rammed the police headquarters, destroying it and municipal offices next door.

Violence has grown in major cities like ethnically mixed Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad, as insurgents moved out of the capital after US and Iraqi forces launched a major security crackdown there almost four months ago.

US military commanders blame most of the violence in and around Mosul on Sunni Arab insurgents and criminals, although Iraqi security officials say Shi'ite and Kurdish militias are also involved.