11 Iraqis die in attack on U.S. forces
Elsewhere in the northern city, gunmen opened fire on mourners in a funeral tent, killing four people and wounding three others, according to Iraqi officials.
Violence has declined drastically throughout Iraq, but Mosul remains a major security challenge despite recent U.S.-Iraqi military operations aimed at routing al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents from the city.
"Most of the Mosul residents live in fear because of such raids conducted by U.S. forces, and even sometimes the Iraqi forces," said Thaier Ahmed, a 32-year-old teacher. "It is a horrible incident that has led to the killing of innocent people, including children."
In a boost to peace efforts, the first Egyptian foreign minister to visit Iraq in nearly two decades arrived in Baghdad and promised to help Iraq face its challenges.
"We reject sectarianism, extremism, violence," Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said. "And we hope that peace and security will prevail in Iraq."
The high-level visit reflected decreasing tension between Iraq's Shiite-led government and mainly Sunni Arab countries in the region.
In the Mosul raid, American troops came under heavy gunfire after entering a house believed to be holding a suspected insurgent on Sunday, and a man inside detonated a suicide vest, the military said in a statement.
Five "terrorists" as well as three women and three children were killed, according to the statement. It did not specify how the people died, nor reported their nationalities.
Two other children, including one who was injured, were found near the building and moved to safety, the military said. A weapons cache was later found inside.
"This is just another tragic example of how al-Qaida in Iraq hides behind innocent Iraqis," U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll said.
Iraqi police officials in Mosul, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information, said the 11 people killed were all family members, including a 7-year-old boy.
Hours later, the funeral tent was struck in western Mosul's restive Zanjili neighborhood, according to police and hospital officials.
Four Iraqi employees of a television station were kidnapped and killed in the area last month.
A secondary school teacher, who was an ethnic Turkomen, also was shot to death near his house in central Mosul on Sunday, a police officer said.



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