At least 7 killed in suicide bomb attack in northern Iraq

At least seven people were killed and 39 wounded in a suicide car bomb explosion at a bank in the city of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, on Sunday, a provincial police source said. The blast occurred at the branch of a government-owned bank in eastern the city of Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, when a suicide bomber blew up his explosive-laden car near dozens of soldiers and retired military officers who were gathering to collect their salaries, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The death toll could rise and the injured were sent to the city hospitals, the source said. The Sunni-majority Nineveh province has long been a stronghold for insurgent groups, including al-Qaida militants, since the U.S.- led invasion of Iraq in 2003.