Up to 11 people were killed and 45 others wounded in two bomb attacks, including a suicide car bomb, in the Iraqi province of Nineveh on Tuesday, a provincial police source said.

The suicide car bomber in the afternoon struck a checkpoint manned by policemen and Iraqi army soldiers in the town of Tal Afer, 70 km west of the city of Mosul, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The attack resulted in the killing of five people, including a policeman, and the wounding of 30 others, including four security members, the source said.

In separate incident, a pushcart packed with explosives detonated in the afternoon near a school and marketplace in the Baladiyat neighborhood in northern Mosul, killing six shop owners and stall vendors and wounded 15 people, including some school children, the source said.

The attacks came a day after a deadly suicide car bombing targeted a joint US and Iraqi patrol in Mosul, killing 16 people and wounded 33 others.

Nineveh province is said to be one of the last strongholds of al-Qaida fighters in the war-torn country.

The province has been the scene of a major security crackdown by US troops and Iraqi security forces, which was aimed at uprooting al-Qaida militants and other anti-US insurgent groups.

(Xinhua News Agency December 3, 2008)