Four Iraqi soldiers among six killed in attacks

KIRKUK - Six people were killed, four of them Iraqi soldiers, in separate attacks in northern Iraq Tuesday, military sources said.

Some 250 km north of Baghdad in the city of Kirkuk, two Iraqi soldiers were killed and one injured when an explosive device went off as their patrol was driving through the centre of the city.

Further north of Kirkuk, two soldiers were killed and three injured in a car bomb attack in the city of Mosul.

In other parts of Mosul, a policeman was killed when gunmen opened fire on him, while a woman was shot dead by gunmen in a separate attack in the western part of the city.

Mosul, located some 400 km north of Baghdad, and its surrounding towns are among Iraq’s most ethnically diverse, and dangerous. Insurgents continue to mount near-daily attacks in the area, even as police claim that security sweeps have netted hundreds of detainees.

Security forces have increasingly come under attack from insurgents in recent months.

These attacks come less than a month after a US drawdown to under 50,000 soldiers in Iraq, with more scheduled to leave by the end of 2011.