At least 10 killed in suicide car bombings in Iraq

A minibus laden with explosives slammed into the house of a local police chief on Tuesday, while minutes later, a Toyota Land Cruiser blew up outside the home of a Sunni official in a northern Iraqi city, police said.

Photo: At least 10 killed in suicide car bombings in Iraq

The morning attacks in Beiji, a Sunni city 155 miles north of Baghdad, claimed at least 10 lives and wounded 17 people, police said.

Six houses were destroyed in the blasts and rescue workers were still searching through the rubble for other victims. Police also sealed off the area of the explosions, which took place some 500 yards apart in a residential area.

It was not clear if the police chief and the Sunni official, a member of the local Awakening Council group of Iraqis who have turned against extremists in the area, were among the casualties.

Also Tuesday morning, drive-by shooters killed the deputy police chief in Mosul , 225 miles northwest of Baghdad , police said.

Brig. Gen. Abdul-Al Thanon was leaving his house when four gunmen showered him with bullets from a speeding car. The deputy's driver was wounded in the morning attack in Mosul 's northern Hadbaa neighborhood, police Brig. Gen. Mohamed al-Wakaa said.

In violence elsewhere, a roadside bomb in Baghdad 's southeastern suburb of Jisr Diyala ripped through and outdoor market near a bus station, killing two civilians and wounding 10 others, police said.

In Baghdad 's southern, ethnically mixed neighborhood of Saydiyah, unidentified gunmen in a speeding car fatally shot a Shiite father and his two sons as they were leaving their home, police said. The motive behind the attack was unclear, police said.