The Iraqi government announced new security measures Sunday to protect Christians in the northern city of Mosul after a spate of attacks against them by Sunni religious extremists.
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf said the government was sending more police into Christian neighborhoods and establishing more checkpoints and patrols near churches.
The governor of the province that includes Mosul, Duraid Mohammed Kashmoula, said that about 3,000 Christians have fled over the past week to escape threats and attacks by extremists.
Suicide car bombers struck twice elsewhere in Mosul, killing at least six people and wounding dozens of others, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.
The first attack targeted a U.S. patrol, the U.S. military said. There were no American casualties, but five Iraqis were killed, including three boys, the military said.
The other car bomber targeted Iraqi police, and 25 people were wounded, the U.S. said.
In Baghdad, a bomb in a parked car exploded on a commercial street in the Bayaa district, killing seven people and wounding nine, police said.
Turkish warplanes attacked a group of Kurdish rebels, including senior commanders, in northern Iraq, the military said. It was another in a series of cross-border raids in retaliation for a guerrilla attack that killed 17 soldiers.
