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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A roadside bomb exploded Wednesday near the northern city of Mosul, wounding three U.S. soldiers and seven other people, the military and local police said.
The explosion occurred as three American vehicles were passing, but the force of the blast hit two civilian cars behind, said a witness, Alaa Mohammed Hanash.
A hospital spokesman, Abdel Wahab Ismail, said six Iraqis, including a female university student, and a Turkish national, were injured, but none seriously. All except one were released.
A U.S. military spokesman said three U.S. soldiers were injured but gave no other details except that the explosion occurred at about 8 a.m. west of Mosul, about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
In recent months, roadside explosives have become one of the weapons of choice among Iraqi insurgents. The bombs -- usually made from mortar shells and explosives, like TNT -- are routinely placed along the side of roads and detonated as American convoys pass.
The most recent American service member killed by a roadside bomb died Sunday of wounds suffered two days earlier near Samarra north of Baghdad.
On Tuesday night, armed Iraqi guards of a private company accidentally shot and killed an Iraqi policeman, Lt. Ahmed Mufeed, said in the northern city of Kirkuk, Gen. Shakir Sherko, the chief of the city police, said.
Nine guards involved in the shooting, which resulted from an apparent misunderstanding, were arrested, Sherko said. He gave no other details.
He said the trainee guards worked for a British security company, but this could not be independently confirmed.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
