MOSUL, Iraq, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least two people were killed and up to 33 others injured on Thursday in two suicide bomb attacks targeted Iraqi police in the volatile city of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, a provincial police source said.

    A suicide car bomb struck a police patrol in the Mansour neighborhood in central Mosul, killing two civilians and wounding 28 others, including 16 policemen, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    In a separate incident, five people were wounded when a suicide bomber wearing an explosive-belt apparently blew himself prematurely away from a group of policemen outside the provincial government building in the Dawasa neighborhood in central part of the city, the source said.

    The attacks came as the Iraqi parliament approved in the afternoon a landmark security pact with the United States that paves the way for U.S. forces to stay until the end of 2011.

    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.