Iraqi teens: We are suicide bombers

SIX teenage boys who said they were being trained as suicide bombers were detained yesterday in the northern city of Mosul, Iraqi officials said.

Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Abdul-Karim Khalaf said the boys were between the ages of 14 and 16.

Initial investigations show they were being trained by a Saudi militant who was killed in military operations, said the major general.

The US military in northern Iraq said American forces were not involved and had no information about the arrests, referring questions to the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

In violence Monday, a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army checkpoint on the road that leads to the Baghdad International Airport, wounding five people, including one Iraqi soldier and four civilians, police said.