Bomb kills four contractors in northern Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A roadside bomb killed four contractors and wounded eight others in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.

The military said the bomb hit a coalition logistics convoy south of the city of Mosul on Monday.

A U.S. military spokesman said nationalities of the victims had not been released, pending notification of next of kin.

Private contractors help transport much of the food and other supplies needed by U.S. military bases in Iraq. At the height of the Sunni Arab insurgency in Iraq, gunmen often targeted such convoys.

The U.S. military once described Mosul as al Qaeda’s last urban stronghold in Iraq. But U.S. and Iraqi officials say a sustained military offensive has largely broken the back of the Sunni Islamist group in the city, Iraq’s third largest.