MOSUL, Iraq, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Gunmen shot dead a retired officer from the former army, while a judge survived a bomb attack in the city of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, a provincial police source said on Tuesday.

    Unidentified armed men gunned down a retired brigadier from Saddam Hussein's army in front of his house in southern Mosul late on Monday, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    In a separate incident, Judge Mohammad Najem, head of Mosul's Criminal Investigation Court, survived with wounds a roadside bomb explosion near his car in northern Mosul on Monday night, the source said.

    The blast wounded two of Najem's aides who were with him in the car during the attack, the source added.

    Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, is said to be one of the last strongholds of al-Qaida fighters and some insurgent groups in the war-torn country.