A suicide bomber killed nine at the headquarters of the Iraqi president, as fierce gun battles between supporters of an anti-American Shiite cleric and Iraqi forces left at least six others dead yesterday.
The bomber blew up his bomb-rigged truck in the car park of the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, in the northern city of Mosul.
At least five civilians and four Kurdish security personnel, Peshmergas, were killed, said police Col. Abdul-Kareem Ahmed al-Jibouri.
He said 41 were injured in the blast, which damaged the one-storey office and set 17 cars on fire.
In the southern city of Karbala, Shiite gunmen and security forces exchanged fire for hours today near one of Iraq's holiest shrines containing the mausoleum of Hussein, a revered Shiite figure.
