A car bomb went off outside the police forensics department in the city of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, on Tuesday, killing two policemen and wounding 12 people, a provincial police source said, XInhua reported.
"A booby-trapped car parked near the building of the forensics department in the al-Nabi Younis neighborhood in eastern Mosul, detonated at about 7:30 a.m. (0430 GMT)," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
A traffic police officer and a policeman were killed, said the source, adding that six policemen were among the wounded.
The blast also caused damages to the forensics building and nearby buildings, the source said.
Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, has been a stronghold of insurgent groups and al-Qaida fighters in the war-torn country.
Nineveh province remains one of Iraq's most volatile areas despite major security crackdowns by U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces to uproot the insurgency which erupted shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Car bomb kills 2 policemen near forensics office in northern Iraq
