A suicide bomber killed nine people at the party headquarters of the Iraqi president, as fierce gun battles between supporters of an anti-American Shiite cleric and Iraqi forces left at least six people dead Tuesday, officials said. The suicide bomber blew up his bomb-rigged truck in the car park of the headquarters of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, in the northern city of Mosul. At least five civilians and four Kurdish security personnel, known as Peshmergas, were killed, said police Col. Abdul-Kareem Ahmed al-Jibouri. He said 41 people were injured in the blast, which damaged the one-storey office building and set 17 cars on fire. In the southern city of Karbala, Shiite gunmen and security forces exchanged gunfire for several hours Tuesday near one of Iraq's holiest shrines containing the mausoleum of Hussein, a revered figure in Shiite history, according to a report of the Associated Press.
