| Up to 17 Kurdish militiamen have been killed in a suicide car bombing in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul, exacerbating fears that a rising tide of violence could derail Iraqi elections in January. The deadly attack came just hours after a double car bombing in Baghdad killed at least four policemen and wounded 49 others, and 13 other Iraqis were reported killed on Saturday in a wave of attacks across the country. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) chief in Mosul, Saad Pira, told AFP that 17 peshmergas fighters were killed and more than 40 wounded when a suicide car bomber rammed their convoy as they were travelling through the Karama neighbourhood of Mosul. "An Opel car slammed into the convoy and exploded against the minibuses, two of which were totally gutted by fire," he said. The attack took place near the PUK headquarters in Karama. |