Iraq: The death toll in post-war Iraq rose yesterday as civilians were killed and injured in two separate bomb attacks. US forces said they had killed a number of Saddam Hussein supporters in northern Iraq.
A roadside bomb apparently aimed at US troops blew up two commuter buses, killing an Iraqi and wounding about 20 people.
In the northern city of Mosul, a blast ripped through a cinema, causing several casualties, local people said. Shopkeepers said they saw about 20 people carried out of the building, some of them with very serious wounds.
Three Iraqi police officers were recovering in hospital from another incident overnight in which they said a US soldier was also wounded. Elsewhere in the city troops sealed off a road tunnel to deal with explosives found there.
The incidents underscored the perils for countries considering US requests for peacekeepers.
The head of a panel investigating last month's attack on the UN headquarters in Iraq said the security situation was so grim it was not yet clear if his team could even go to Baghdad.
Meanwhile, US troops said they killed nine Iraqi guerrillas, the biggest toll for more than a month, in scattered action over northern Iraq in the past 24 hours.
In several clashes, the spokesman said, a mid-level financier of the guerrillas was arrested and nearly 40 other rebels detained. - (Reuters)