A spate of violence in Iraq killed nine people and injured other 22 on Wednesday. The dead included a mayor, four soldiers, two family members of a cleric, and two civilians.

A spate of violence in Iraq killed nine people and injured other 22 on Wednesday. The dead included a mayor, four soldiers, two family members of a cleric, and two civilians.

"A car bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol in Al-Zuhour neighborhood, killing three soldiers and wounding three civilians" in Mosul in Iraq's north, a first lieutenant in the Mosul police said.
"Another car bomb exploded ... in the same neighborhood, killing two civilians and wounding 16," he said, adding that the bombs went off about 9:00 am (0600 GMT).

A doctor at Mosul General Hospital confirmed the deaths, saying: "We received five bodies, including three soldiers."

In Iskandiriyah, 50 kilometers south of Baghdad, "unknown armed men attacked the house of Safaa al-Mussawi, a Friday prayer leader, with bombs" during the night, a police first lieutenant said.
The cleric "and his son were seriously injured and his wife and daughter were killed," the officer said.
A source in the office of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, confirmed the attack on Mussawi's home.

The mayor of Iskandiriyah was killed on Tuesday night, a police source said.
"Armed men killed the mayor of the Iskandiriyah sub-district yesterday night. His name was Ali al-Massudi, from the Sadr movement," the source said, referring to the movement of anti-US Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Also in Iskandariyah one Iraqi soldier was killed and another wounded in an attack by gunmen on a patrol in the area, an army captain said.