Bombs explode in two Iraqi cities

Assailants detonated a bomb outside a policeman’s house in a city north-east of Baghdad today, injuring five bystanders, including two children, authorities said.

The blast in a residential area of Baqouba, where anti-US insurgents are active, wounded an eight-year-old boy and his 10-year-old sister, police Captain Mohammed Hadi said.

The targeted policeman was inside his house at the time, and was unharmed.

Further north, in Kirkuk, a bomb exploded at an intersection where police cars park daily. Three civilians were injured, police Colonel Dashti Aziz said.

As bystanders gathered after the blast, gunmen opened fire from a passing car, but there were no casualties. Police said the gunmen were later apprehended.

Rebels routinely target police and other Iraqis working with the US-led coalition that is governing Iraq, but civilians often get caught in the crossfire of the conflict.

Yesterday, rebel rockets slammed into a government building in the northern city of Mosul, killing two civilians and wounding 14 others.

The rocket launcher was hidden in a wooden cart that was wheeled up to a blast wall surrounding the three-story main government building, said Mosul police Sergeant Jassim Mohammed.

In the south of the country yesterday, a gunman shot and killed the Iraqi driver of a civilian truck carrying supplies to Japan’s military, Japan’s Kyodo News agency said.

The attack was an apparent robbery attempt.