A suicide truck bomber hit a Sunni tribal leader's house near the Syrian border on Wednesday, killing at least five people in the latest attack on provincial officials and tribal figures. A parked car bomb also went off near a group of black market gasoline vendors in a town elsewhere in northern Iraq, killing at least five people and injuring seven, police said. Another bomb struck wounded victims as they were being taken to the hospital.
The blast from the car bomb was intensified when the barrels of gasoline being sold went off in the center of Shurqat, 140 miles north of Baghdad, according to the police officials, cited by the AP.
On his part, a U.S. military spokesman on Wednesday acknowledged an "upturn" in violence in recent days, including suicide attacks on police and tribal leaders. "We have seen an upturn in levels of violence in the last few days and so we are continuing our efforts to suppress it and keep the pressure on extremist networks," Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner told reporters.
"We will continue to keep that focus because we know that this is a specific period of time ... that the insurgents will try to increase the levels of violence," he added, referring to the ongoing holy month of Ramadan.
An American soldier died by a bomb blast in the Diala province, northeast of Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Wednesday. The incident took place near the soldier's vehicle on Tuesday, a military statement said.
