A suicide bomber struck a security checkpoint outside a town near Mosul on Wednesday, wounding seven civilians, local police source said.

"A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up at a joint police and Iraqi army checkpoint outside the Qaiyara town, some 50 km south of Mosul," a source from the city police told Xinhua by telephone.

Two of the seven wounded were in critical condition, the source said, adding that the victims were queuing outside the checkpoint waiting to cross to the town.

Separately, insurgents attacked Iraqi army and police bases in Tal Afar, 70 km west of Mosul, with mortar rounds and machine-gun fire, Brigadier Najim Abdullah al-Jubouri, mayor of the town told Xinhua by telephone, without giving further details.

Mosul, the capital city of the predominantly Sunni province of Nineveh, is some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital.

Source: Xinhua