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Nervous families bury dead killed in triple bombing

BAGHDAD - Families in a southern Iraqi city where a triple bombing claimed at least 25 lives buried their dead furtively, afraid of another attack and anxious for the dozens of wounded who remained hospitalized Thursday.

In the northern city of Mosul, meanwhile, gunmen killed a woman who ran a beauty parlor out of her home, apparently angered by what they saw as a violation of Islamic tradition. Elsewhere in Mosul, two police checkpoints came under attack - at one, gunmen opened fire and killed four policemen, and at the other, militants tried to storm the roadblock but were shot to death before they reached it, police said.

Mosul, an ethnically mixed city 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, has seen a rise in violence that many blame in part on sectarian tensions there and an influx of militants who fled the security crackdown in the Iraqi capital.

Hospitals in Amarah were crowded with the more than 100 people wounded when the three car bombs exploded in quick succession Wednesday at the city's main market. Relatives filled the hallways and tended to victims, who were missing limbs and suffering from major head wounds.

Provincial authorities lowered their death toll on Thursday from a high of 41 to at least 25, blaming confusion in the immediate aftermath of the bombing for the conflicting numbers and cautioning that many of the injuries were serious.

No group claimed responsibility for the Amarah explosions, which occurred minutes apart. Bystanders rushed to help victims of the first blast, only to be caught in the explosions that followed, police and witnesses said.

Elsewhere in Iraq

- The U.S. military said soldiers killed nine suspected terrorists in a gunbattle Wednesday near Balad. A woman nearby was also killed and four children wounded.

- In the Kurdish-dominated town of Khanaqin, a roadside bombing killed four civilians and wounded 12 on Wednesday, said Col. Azad Eisa of the Khanaqin police. He blamed al-Qaida in Iraq.

- U.S. soldiers killed two suspected insurgents and destroyed a weapons cache just outside Salman Pak.

[Last modified December 14, 2007, 01:19:11]