Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    MOSUL, Iraq, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- A car bomb explosion struck an Iraqi army patrol in a town in the volatile province of Nineveh on Thursday, killing a civilian and wounding 15 people, a provincial police source said.

    The explosion occurred in the afternoon when a booby-trapped car hit the military patrol near a popular marketplace in the town of al-Hamdaniya, some 30 km northeast of the provincial capital Mosul, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Six soldiers were among the wounded people by the blast that also damaged a patrol vehicle, several nearby shops, stalls and civilian cars, the source said.

    Iraqi security forces immediately sealed off the main roads leading to the scene while ambulances were evacuating the wounded to nearby hospitals, he said, adding one of the wounded soldiers was in a critical condition.

    Nineveh province 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 by U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces, which was aimed at uprooting al-Qaida militants and other anti-U.S. insurgent groups.