国际英语新闻：18 people killed in violence across Iraq

Iraq's once most violent province of Anbar and its flashpoint city of Fallujah have been relatively calm for more than three years after Sunni tribes and anti-U.S. insurgent groups turned to cooperate with the U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces against al-Qaida network in Iraq.

In northern Iraq, nine soldiers were killed when gunmen blew up a bomb and opened fire on three vehicles carrying soldiers of the Iraqi 3rd Division, on a main road outside Mosul, the capital city of Nineveh province, an anonymous provincial police source told Xinhua.

Five soldiers and a civilian were also wounded by the attack, the source said.

The soldiers were leaving their military bases for vacation and were heading to their homes on a highway near the city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, when the insurgents ambushed their vehicles, the source added.

Nineveh province has been a stronghold of insurgent groups and al-Qaida fighters despite major security crackdowns by the U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces to uproot the insurgency which erupted shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Violence is still common in Iraqi cities as security deteriorated, causing a setback to the efforts of the Iraqi government to restore normalcy in the country about two weeks after the U.S. military announced withdrawal of its combat troops from the war-torn country.