Mosul, in the Kurdistan province in northern Iraq, has suffered a bomb blast that came almost immediately after police arrived to act on a tip that the building contained explosives. According to Brigadier General Abdul Karim Al-Jubouri, it occurred at 1630 local time, and witnesses said it was the loudest blast they had ever heard in Mosul. Apparently, it was a booby-trapped house that has followed a string of such houses that have killed many Iraqi forces, US/Coalition forces, and civilians according to the Bloomberg website. However, Brig. Gen. Al-Jubouri has said that officials do not think that it was a traditional booby-trap mechanism by the usual suspects, because the insurgents would wait for the local security officers to actually enter the building to increase the victim yield. In addition, he also said that insurgents would warn local residents to leave the area, which did not happen in this case.
An attempted assassination on the head of the Kirkuk police academy has resulted in five civilians dead and over 10 injured. A suicide car bomb missed its target in a town called Dibis, about 20 miles northwest of Kirkuk. This marks a rise in violence in the once placid area of Kurdistan.
