Market blast kills 9 as UN cuts back staff

A MORTAR blast tore through a market north of Baghdad killing nine civilians and injuring more than a dozen as the UN said it was pulling more staff out of the strife-torn country.

Townspeople suspected that US soldiers stationed nearby may have been the target.

Also yesterday, the US military said an American soldier was killed in an ambush in Kirkuk. Amid the continuing violence, the UN announced it was cutting its staff in Baghdad, and Iraqis prepared to bury an assassinated member of Iraq’s Governing Council.