World

Officials say a suicide attacker has driven a car laden with explosives into a police checkpoint in northern Iraq, killing five policemen and wounding 12 other people.

A police officer says four civilians were among those wounded in Monday's attack near a grocery market in the northern city of Mosul, 360 kilometres (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad. A health official confirmed the causality figures.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information to the media.

Although violence has ebbed since the peak of insurgency several years ago, attacks are still frequent against security forces, government officials and civilians.