Car bombings hit Iraq

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The first blast occurred outside forward operating base War Horse, a U.S. outpost at the former al-Faris air-force base 30 miles north of Baghdad.

"At rush hour, a suicide bomber blew up his Mitsubishi," said Iraqi police Second Lt. Ali Hussein. "The blast led to huge damage."

The explosion killed at least four Iraqis and one U.S. soldier, the U.S. military and police said. Sixteen Iraqis and 10 American soldiers were wounded.

The explosion occurred yards from the base's main gate, Hussein said. Hundreds of Iraqis who work at the base were standing in line awaiting security checks, said one of the injured, Ahmed Abdul-Latif.

Two car bombs also exploded in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, killing 10 and wounding 100 people, the U.S. military said.

The first explosion took place at 9:15 a.m. The U.S. military helped evacuate the injured.

The second took place about 45 minutes later outside a coalition operating base. There was no word on casualties from the second blast.

Mosul police said the first blast occurred in front of the offices of Mosul's mayor, Salem al-Hadj Isa, who was apparently the target of the attack.

Isa, who is also the head of the local province's security commission, was unharmed, but his office said several of his bodyguards were wounded. Mosul, about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has seen frequent outbreaks of violence in the past year, with several senior local officials killed in drive-by shootings, car-bomb blasts or suicide attacks.

Today's bombings came a day after a U.S. soldier was killed and two wounded when their convoy rolled over a homemade bomb near Iskandariyah, about 25 miles south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
 
Soldiers fired at fleeing suspects, wounding some and taking them prisoner, the military said without specifying numbers.

Also yesterday, a U.S. soldier was pronounced dead at a military hospital after he collapsed and stopped breathing during guard duty in Baghdad, U.S. Central Command said.

As of today, 823 U.S. service members have died in Iraq since the beginning of military operations in March 2003, according to the Defense Department.

Of those, 604 died as a result of hostile action.

The new bombings are the latest in a series of attacks on U.S. forces and their allies in the days leading up to the handover of sovereignty in Iraq on June 30.