MOSUL, Iraq, Oct 4 (AFP) - Three people were killed and 12 wounded, including a US soldier, when two car bombs tore through the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Monday, mirroring twin bombings in Baghdad just hours earlier.
A first car bomb exploded near a junior school killing its two occupants and an Iraq child passer-by, officials said.
"Three dead, including a child, and 11 injured, six of them children, have been brought in," said Zaki Riad, a doctor at Mosul general hospital, adding that the bomb appeared to have blown up prematurely in the city's southern Wadi Hajar district.
The car's two passengers warned bystanders that their vehicle was laden with explosives but it detonated when they tried to start it, police colonel Muzahem Abdallah said.
Later in the afternoon, a second car bomb exploded in the city, this time targeting a US military convoy.
"At 4:00 pm (1300 GMT) this afternoon a car bomb hit a military convoy, one soldier was wounded and has been evacuated to a military hospital," said an army spokeswoman, Angela Bowman, adding the injury was not life threatening.
Earlier on Monday, two car bombs exploded in Baghdad, killing at least 17 people and wounding scores of others.
The third largest city in Iraq, Mosul lies 370 kilometres (230 miles) north of the capital and has been the scene of almost daily gun and bomb attacks against multinational and Iraqi security forces.
On September 29, a car bomb hit a US convoy in Mosul, wounding six soldiers and two Iraqi civilians.
According to a recent report by the Iraqi government, Mosul harbours the second largest pocket in Iraq of militants loyal to top US foe Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, with an estimated 400 operatives.