BAGHDAD, Oct 12: At least seven Iraqis were killed and several dozen wounded on Sunday in three attacks in Mosul, two of them suicide car bombs aimed at American and Iraqi soldiers, the US military and a police source said.

“In the first suicide car bomb, the one targeting coalition forces but with no coalition casualties, we have five killed and 10 wounded,” US army spokesman Staff Sergeant Sam Smith said.

Among the dead were three young boys, one six, one seven and one of unknown age, he said.

“The second car bomb was targeting Iraqi police and wounded 25 Iraqis. We don’t know how many were police or civilians,” Smith said.

In the third incident, two Iraqis died and three were hurt as a homemade device exploded outside a prison, a Mosul police source said.

The two attacks took place in central and the western areas of Mosul, one of Iraq’s most dangerous cities and the last urban stronghold of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The US army could not say if the car bomb attacks happened in the largely Christian neighbourhoods which have been the target of a campaign of violence in recent days.

Nearly 1,000 Christian families have fled their homes in the city since Friday for fear of being targeted.—AFP