Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    MOSUL, Iraq, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. forces killed a wanted al-Qaida cell leader and his two family members on Tuesday during a raid in Mosul, capital of Nineveh province in northern Iraq, a provincial police officer said.

    "U.S. troops at dawn raided a house in the neighborhood of al-Rifaq, eastern Mosul, killing a man, his wife and a one-year-old child," Brig. Abdul-Kareem al-Jubouri, director of the provincial security operations office, told Xinhua.

    Jubouri quoted a U.S. military source as saying that the man was leader of a local group affiliated to al-Qaida organization, and he was wanted by the U.S. forces.

    The three bodies, showing burning signs, were transported to a morgue in the city, he added.

    Meanwhile, Jubouri said that U.S. helicopters pounded the Karama district, an industrial area in eastern the city, causing no casualties.

    The U.S. military had no immediate comment on the incident. Mosul lies some 400 km north of Baghdad.