BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 14 people in an attack on a bus in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday, security sources said.
Another seven people were wounded but few other detailswere immediately available. Another police source said theinitial death toll was five.
Iraqi police in Mosul, 350 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad,said the bus was carrying passengers to Syria to Iraq's west.
They said a wounded passenger had told them that the bomberboarded the bus and told the driver to change direction beforedetonating a belt packed with explosives.
The driver was among those killed, police said.
Iraqi and U.S. security forces have launched a series ofoffensives in northern provinces this year, particularly inMosul, which they have described as al Qaeda's last major urbanstronghold in Iraq.
Sunni Islamist al Qaeda, blamed for most large-scaleattacks in Iraq, have regrouped in Iraq's north after beingforced out of former strongholds in western Anbar province andaround Baghdad during security crackdowns last year.
Attacks across Iraq have fallen 60 percent since last June,U.S. and Iraqi officials say, with the improved securitycredited to an extra 30,000 U.S. troops and the growing use ofmainly Sunni Arab neighbourhood police units.
The neighbourhood police units have spread across Iraqsince Sunni Arab tribal sheikhs turned against al Qaeda inAnbar in late 2006. The units have since become frequenttargets for attack by al Qaeda and other militants.
(Baghdad newsroom; Writing by Paul Tait, editing by RalphBoulton)
