Suicide bomber kills 13 in northern Iraq

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BAGHDAD, Jun 21 (AP): A suicide truck bomber struck the city hall in a predominantly Sunni area in northern Iraq Thursday, killing at least 13 people and wounding 70, an Iraqi commander said.
Several mortars or rockets slammed into the US-controlled Green Zone, raising fresh concerns about the thousands of Americans who live and work in the heavily fortified area in central Baghdad.
The explosion occurred about 10:30 a.m. in the town of Sulaiman Bek, located 100 miles north of the capital and just outside the border with Diyala province, where thousands of US troops are engaged in an offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq.
The local Iraqi army commander blamed al-Qaida for the bombing, saying it was the latest in a series of strikes by the terror network against government officials, whom they accuse of collaborating with the US and the Iraqi government.
Maj. Gen. Anwar Hama Amin, the commander of the Iraqi army's 2nd Brigade who gave the casualty toll, said the target apparently was the mayor, who has lost five relatives in previous assassination attempts. The blast heavily damaged the city hall, along with several nearby houses and stores.
Thamir Mohammed, a 28-year-old newlywed, said he was on his way to city hall to do some paperwork to get a new ration card now that he has a family when the blast occurred, knocking him off his feet and wounding him in the head and legs.
"I was walking in the street heading to the city hall when a truck drove up and parked outside. The driver got out and was just outside the truck when the explosion took place," Mohammed said from his hospital bed in nearby Tuz Khormato.
It was the latest in a series of attacks as al-Qaida fights back as the US intensifies operations against the terror network in Baghdad and on all four points of the compass around the capital.
A US airstrike aimed at a booby-trapped house in one of the centres of those offensives, the Diyala provincial capital of Baqouba, missed its target and "accidentally hit" another structure, wounding 11 civilians, the military said, adding the incident was under investigation.
US troops had cleared the area to destroy a house containing explosives believed placed by al-Qaida, but "the bomb missed its intended target and struck another structure," the military said. "Reports indicate that 11 civilians were injured."
The initial target was later destroyed by a Hellfire missile, producing a large secondary explosion, according to the statement.