Four soldiers were killed Thursday in a car bomb in northern Iraq, police said. An additional five soldiers were injured, dpa reported.
The attack took place in the city of Mosul, some 400 kilometres north of Baghdad, shortly after authorities said that security forces in Mosul had killed a wanted leader of the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq, a group linked to al-Qaeda.
Iraq has witnessed near-daily attacks since US troops withdrew in December 2011.
Violence has been on the rise in the run-up to local elections to be held Saturday in 12 of Iraq's 18 provinces.