By Xinhua,
Mosul, Iraq : A car bomb and a roadside bomb went off coordinately near a convoy of the governor of Nineveh province in the capital city of Mosul on Thursday, killing eight people and wounding 18 others, a provincial police source said.
The double bombing took place after midday and apparently targeted the convoy of governor Duraid Kashmoulah in the Bab al-Toub area in central Mosul, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Kashmoulah narrowly escaped unhurt and five of his bodyguards were among the wounded, the source said.
Kashmoulah came under the attack when he was visiting a popular market in the old neighborhood hit by mortar rounds on Wednesday night, the source said.
The province as well as it capital Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, is the scene of a major security crackdown carried out by U.S. and Iraqi security forces to uproot insurgent groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq network.
Nineveh is said to be one of the last strongholds of al-Qaida fighters in the war-torn country.