A car bomb detonated Thursday in an open market in the northern city of Mosul as mortar rounds landed close to the Italian Embassy and an Iraqi National Guard base in Baghdad, killing three people and injuring at least seven.
In Mosul, two Iraqis were wounded after the car bomb went off in the eastern part of the city, the AP reported.
In Baghdad, Iraqi fighters fired multiple mortar rounds toward an Iraqi National Guard base and the nearby Italian Embassy in Baghdad's Waziriyah neighborhood. Police Lt. Hussein Ali said three civilians were killed and five wounded in the attack.
Meanwhile, Japan's Cabinet on Thursday gave the nod to a plan to keep its 550 troops in southern Iraq for another year. The current mission, focussing on water purification and other reconstruction projects, had been scheduled to expire next Tuesday.
