January 11, 2007	Thursday	Zilhaj 20, 1427

BAGHDAD, Jan 10: Bombings, shootings, assassination attempts and dumped bodies ravaged Iraq as seven people died on Wednesday ahead of the unveiling of a strategy shift from US President George W. Bush.

Four people were killed and 12 hurt when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded market in the Al Khadra neighbourhood of Tal Afar, the northern town's councillor Brigadier General Najem Abdullah said.

Abdullah's vehicle had earlier in the day come under a car bomb attack in the restive city of Mosul, the third largest city of Iraq.

He was not in the vehicle at the time, but his driver was wounded, said Major Mohammed Ahmed of Mosul police.

Two other people -- a woman and a male nurse -- were killed in Mosul when gunmen opened fire randomly inside a central bus terminal and separately raided a private clinic in the neighbourhood of Qahira, said Major Ahmed.

In Baghdad, four civilians were wounded in two roadside bomb attacks, one of which also ruptured a water pipeline supplying the impoverished Shia slum district of Sadr City, said a security source on condition of anonymity.

South of Baghdad, a civilian was killed and three wounded when a car rigged with explosives blew up at a gas station in Mahmudiyah, gutting the place, said an interior ministry source.

In a separate version, the US military said two local residents were wounded when insurgents detonated a double truck bombing near a gas station in Mahmudiyah not far from where the city council was holding its second meeting.—AFP