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Suicide bomber kills 8 in Iraq bus attack


    MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a bus on Tuesday, killing at least eight people, as the vehicle stopped at a checkpoint near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, security officials said.

    Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, is described by U.S.officials as the last remaining urban stronghold of al Qaeda inIraq. The U.S. military accused the Sunni Islamist group ofcarrying out the bus bombing.

    Brigadier-General Khalid Abdul-Sattar, Iraqi militaryoperations spokesman in northern Nineveh province, said a busheading to Syria from the city of Kirkuk was stopped at amilitary checkpoint in the town of Kasik, 20 km west of Mosul.

    "A soldier came on board the bus and the bomber tried toget off. The soldier pointed his gun at him and told him to sitdown. At that point the bomber detonated his explosives,"Sattar told Reuters.

    Brigadier-General Ibrahim al-Jubouri, police chief of thenearby town of Tal Afar, confirmed the version of events.

    Sattar said nine people were killed and four wounded in theblast, while the U.S. military put the death toll at eight. Allthe victims were Iraqis.

    Another Iraqi military official, who declined to be named,put the death toll at 14.

    Iraqi and U.S. security forces have launched a series ofoffensives in northern Iraq to wipe out al Qaeda, which theysay regrouped there after being largely ousted from Baghdad andthe western province of Anbar, its former stronghold.

    Attacks across Iraq have fallen 60 percent since last June,U.S. officials say, but al Qaeda has proved resilient and hascontinued to carry out deadly suicide bombings.

    It has adapted to the changed security environment byswitching targets and methods, including the increased use ofwomen suicide bombers. And a suspected al Qaeda bomber in awheelchair killed a senior policeman inside the policeoperations centre in the Iraqi city of Samarra on Monday.

    Fearful of an al Qaeda strike, Iraq's security forces havestaged a major security operation to protect pilgrims headingto the southern Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala for the annualritual of Arbain, which climaxes on Thursday.

    Millions are expected to gather in the city, where 40,000policemen and soldiers backed by tanks have been deployed.

    Arbain is a major test of the Iraqi security forces'abilities to protect such events. They are a major target foral Qaeda, which considers Shi'ites, a majority in Iraq but aminority in the Muslim world, as heretics.

    A suspected al Qaeda suicide bomber killed 63 pilgrims at arest stop on a highway south of Baghdad on Sunday.

    (Writing by Paul Tait and Mohammed Abbas; Editing by IbonVillelabeitia)