Three Iraqi soldiers and three civilians, killed in a suicide truck bombing near Mosul, were among 18 victims of sectarian violence across Iraq on Saturday.Six people were killed and 17 wounded after a bomber in a pickup truck detonated his explosives as Iraqi forces chased the speeding vehicle near Mosul, an army officer said. Acting on a tip, a team of Iraqi soldiers tried to intercept the suicide driver as he was heading west from Mazra village toward Mosul, 360 kilometres northwest of Baghdad. As the Iraqi Humvee neared the truck, the driver detonated his explosive payload, according to the officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Also on Saturday, drive-by gunmen killed a Sunni sheikh near his home in MosulÂ’s Mithaq neighborhood, said police spokesman Abdul Karim Al Jbouri. Sheikh Ghanim Qassim was a mosque preacher and member of MosulÂ’s edict commission, a religious rule-making body.
Al-Jbouri also said a 50-year-old journalist visiting his brother in the Bab Al Baidh neighborhood in central Mosul was killed about 9:30am when he was caught in a mortar attack. In central Baghdad, gunmen opened fire at an Iraqi checkpoint, killing a civilian and wounding four others, police said.