Car bomb kills 10 in northern Iraq

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - A car bomb killed ten Iraqis including six policemen near the volatile northern city of Mosul Monday, police sources said, a day before U.S. combat troops withdraw from urban centres.

Most Iraqis are hailing the U.S. pullback from towns and cities as a milestone on their country's road to sovereignty six years after the U.S. military invaded to topple Saddam Hussein.

But a string of bombings in Baghdad and northern Iraq in recent days, including two of the bloodiest attacks for more than a year, have shaken confidence in their security forces.

Police sources said the car bomb was discovered Monday at a parking lot in the mostly Christian town of Hamdaniya, about 40 km (30 miles) east of Mosul.

The sources said six policemen, a Kurdish security officer and three civilians, including a boy, were killed when it detonated as the officers were sealing off the area.

Hamdaniya is controlled by Kurdish security forces.

Two big bombings in Baghdad and near the northern city of Kirkuk in recent days killed more than 150 people between them. U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned that they expect the number of attacks to increase as the U.S. troops pull back and in the run-up to a parliamentary election next January.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Saturday the U.S. withdrawal sent a message to the world that Iraq could handle its own security. The government trusted its forces to defeat al Qaeda militants and criminal gangs, he added.