Provincial police chief killed in Mosul

Source: Associated Press

A suicide bomber killed an Iraqi police chief and two other officers Thursday after they toured the site of a deadly blast a day earlier that devastated a predominantly Sunni neighborhood in the volatile northern city of Mosul, officials said.

The bomber on Thursday was wearing an explosives vest under an Iraqi police uniform when he struck, killing Brig. Gen. Saleh Mohammed Hassan, the director of police for Ninevah province, the U.S. military said, adding that a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi soldier also were wounded.

The attack compounded the tragedy of Wednesday's explosion, which brought down a three-story apartment building and ravaged adjacent houses just minutes after the Iraqi army arrived to investigate tips about a weapons cache. Police on Thursday raised the casualty toll from that blast to at least 18 killed and 146 wounded.

Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Saeed al-Jubouri said Hassan was attacked after gunmen ambushed the blast site, sparking clashes that lasted for about 15 minutes. The bomber moved toward Hassan's car as it was preparing to flee the area, al-Jubouri said.

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