Three suicide bomb attacks killed at least 31 people yesterday, many of them from the Iraqi security forces, in the northern city of Mosul as insurgents kept up pressure on the Iraqi Government.

Within hours a suicide car bomber wrecked a police headquarters, an attack on an Iraqi army base killed up to 16 people and four police were killed when a bomber walked into Mosul's General Hospital and blew himself up.

The third attack, on a police post in the hospital, caused damage to the emergency ward where casualties had been brought from the previous incidents. Six policemen and nine civilians were wounded, police said at the scene.

The earlier two bombings were claimed by al-Qaida's Iraq wing, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Meanwhile, the British newspaper The Sunday Times reported yesterday that US officials were in secret talks with Iraqi insurgents aimed at seeking an eventual breakthrough that might reduce the violence in Iraq.

The talks took place at Balad in the hills 65 kilometres north of Baghdad on June 3 and 10 days later, the paper said, citing an Iraqi who said that he had attended both meetings. Further talks are planned, the report said.

During the talks, which involved a former Iraqi minister and senior tribal leaders, a small group of insurgent commanders came face to face with four US officials, the report said.

The Iraqi sources, who have proved reliable in the past, said the US team included senior military and intelligence officers, a civilian staffer from Congress and a representative of the US Embassy in Baghdad.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said he knew that the Pentagon and US State Department had been anxious to talk to insurgent leaders for some time.

Source: China Daily