MOSUL, Iraq, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- Four people were killed and six others injured on Sunday when gunmen attacked a funeral in the city of Mosul, capital of Nineveh province, a provincial police source said.

    The unknown gunmen showered the mourners with bullets at a funeral tent in the Zanjili neighborhood in western Mosul, killing four mourners and wounding six others, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Iraqi security forces rushed to the scene and immediately launched a search operation seeking for the attackers, the source said.

    Nineveh province, and its capital city Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, is said to be one of the last strongholds of al-Qaida fighters in the war-torn country.

    The province has been the scene of a major security crackdown carried out by U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces aimed at uprooting al-Qaida militants and other anti-U.S. insurgent groups.