Casualty toll from Mosul rises to 21

NINEWA/IraqiNews.com: The toll from Mosul two simultaneous roadside bombs on Friday rose to four killed and 17 injured, a Ninewa police source said. “The death toll from Mosul two roadside bombs that simultaneously went off in Bab al-Toub district, central Mosul, rose to 4 along with 17 others injured”. Earlier, a police source said two bombs went off simultaneously in Bab al-Toub district in central Mosul , killing two civilians and injuring 12 more. Mosul, the provincial capital of Ninewa, 400 km north Baghdad, is viewed by U.S. and Iraqi authorities as one of the last remaining al-Qaida strongholds in Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered a two-phase military crackdown in the northern city in May. Ninewa officials said the gains from these operations, however, have disintegrated as militant groups re-entered the city there due to an insufficient number of Iraqi troops to maintain security following operations in May. AM(S) 1