Turkish Consul's Convoy Hit by Bomb in North Iraq
A convoy transporting Turkey's consul general was hit by a bombing between the northern Iraqi cities of Mosul and Arbil on Monday causing no casualties, diplomatic sources said.
The blast, which struck in Mosul, damaged all four vehicles in the convoy as it was en route to the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital Arbil.
It was not immediately clear if the consul was explicitly targeted.
"There were no casualties, no wounded," a Turkish diplomat in Baghdad told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"It's not clear whether they aimed at our convoy or if it was an indiscriminate attack."
The diplomat said that the convoy's cars were damaged.
A spokesman for the Turkish foreign ministry in Ankara confirmed the attack, and said Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had called the consul general for more information.
"It's not yet clear who carried out the attack and against whom," the spokesman said.
"The investigation is continuing. We have contacted the Iraqi authorities immediately after the incident and asked that the culprits be found out and that the security of our missions be enhanced."
Violence has spiked sharply in recent months in Iraq, and Mosul and surrounding Nineveh province in particular remains one of the country's most dangerous areas, regularly suffering deadly gun and bomb attacks.
Ties between Iraq and Turkey have worsened considerably in recent years, and the blast against the consul is not the first suffered by Turkey's diplomatic mission to the country.
In January 2012, at least one mortar round struck the outer compound wall of the Turkish embassy in Baghdad, but caused no casualties.
That attack came just a day after Turkey summoned Iraq's ambassador to protest claims it was meddling in Baghdad's affairs by voicing concern over a domestic political crisis.
Source: Agence France Presse
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