Iraq Press Roundup

Al Sabah Al Jadeed newspaper reported Wednesday a security source in Nineveh province announced that U.S. helicopters bombed various parts of Mosul.

The source, who requested anonymity, told the paper that "early Tuesday morning, U.S. helicopters bombed three areas in Mosul."

The source said the reasons for the bombing "weren't clear," adding there were no records yet of casualties.

Witnesses said "sounds of bombings were heard Tuesday in residential areas."

The paper said there was no comment from Multi-National Forces on the bombing.

Al Mada newspaper reported deadly violence in Baghdad and Beiji and said terrorist cells were dismantled in Diyala.

In details, the newspaper quoted a police source as saying insurgents assassinated the head of the Shiite endowment, Ibraheem Abdul Kareem, in Baghdad Tuesday. Insurgents opened heavy fire on his car leading to his immediate death, it said.

Police sources also told the paper Tuesday that one civilian was killed and 11 wounded when two IEDs exploded in a residential area north of Baghdad. Elsewhere in Baghdad, five Iraqi civilians died and 25 were wounded when a car bomb exploded in a crowded market in downtown Baghdad Tuesday.

"Most of the dead and wounded were women and children," a security source told Al Mada.

In Beiji, Saladin province, the paper said police announced that 19 Iraqi civilians were killed and 30 wounded in two car bomb explosions Tuesday. The first explosion targeted the police chief's house and the second a mosque, the paper reported. The police chief was wounded in the attack, four of his bodyguards were killed and seven others wounded.

Shabab Al Iraq newspaper reported that Dubai-based Unity Resources Group claimed responsibility for the killing of two Iraqi women in Baghdad.

The company released a statement saying its employees shot at a civilian vehicle when it didn't stop despite warning gunfire. The report said the women became scared when they heard the gunfire and couldn't stop their vehicle. It said both women were Armenian Christians. One was 48 and the mother of three girls; the other was 30 years old.