Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of two explosions outside Baghdad police academy in eastern part of the capital on Monday rose to 15, with 45 others injured, an Interior Ministry source said.

    A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up at a crowd of police recruits and visitors at the main entrance of the police academy, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Minutes later, a booby trapped car went off at the scene after dozens of people gathered to evacuate the victims, the source said.

    Earlier, the source said that apparently two car bombs struck the area outside the police academy, putting the toll at four killed and six wounded.

    Also in the day, Mudhir al-Mawla, an advisor in the Iraqi cabinet, escaped with wounds a roadside bomb attack near his house in the Suleikh neighborhood in northern Baghdad, a ministry source said.

    Mawla's driver and two bystanders were killed by the blast which also wounded 10 people, including two of his bodyguards, the source said.

    Assassinations and bomb attacks have increased recently in Baghdad despite relative lull in violence during the past months.

Suicide car bomb kills 16 in northern Iraq

    MOSUL, Iraq, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- At least 16 people were killed and up to 33 others wounded on Monday in a suicide car bomb attack targeted Iraqi police in the volatile city of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, a provincial police source said. Full story