Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    MOSUL, Iraq, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen shot dead three Sunni clerics in separate attacks in a single day in Iraqi Nineveh province's capital of Mosul, a provincial police source said on Sunday.

    Gunmen shot dead Sheikh Azhar Mohammad Hussein al-Dulaimi, an Imam at the al-Sahaba mosque, in the 17th July neighborhood in western Mosul late on Saturday, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Meanwhile, another group of armed men gunned down Sheikh Salem Sheet Mohammad in front of the Mahmoud al-Sadiq mosque in the al-Tahrir neighborhood east of the city, the source said.

Earlier in the day, Sheikh Ganim Qasim, an Imam for the al-Huda mosque was also killed in front of his house in the al-Mithaq neighborhood in southeastern Mosul, the source added.

Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, has been the hotbed of insurgency and sectarian violence since the U.S.-led invasion in2003.