Bomb Kills Marines, Iraqi Tribal Leaders

Efan Alesawee, 38, another Awakening leader in Karmah, said it was premature to hand over responsibility for security in the area to the Iraqi government. "It's becoming worse every day," he said in a phone interview. "We have fought very hard, but we cannot control this area."

Security in Anbar province has improved considerably since the years following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Fallujah, a city in Anbar that was once one of the most volatile in Iraq, is now heavily guarded. But suicide bombers have killed dozens of people in outlying areas in recent months.

Col. Faisal Ismail al-Zobaie, the police chief in Fallujah, said the attack was unsurprising.

"We expected this to happen, because al-Qaeda has for months tried to find any gap in security," he said.

The attack in Mosul happened in a crowded commercial street in the Bab al-Toob neighborhood, which is near the building that houses the governor's office.

Ahmad Hamid, a photojournalist in Mosul, said he was in the building when a rocket landed at a market nearby.

"When this happened, the governor decided to go and see for himself the damage that this caused," Hamid said in a telephone interview.

As Iraqi security forces began asking people to leave the area, a car bomb exploded roughly 30 yards from where the rocket landed, Hamid said.

Gov. Duraid Kashmoula's bodyguards whisked him away and weapons were fired into the air, Hamid said. "It all happened very fast."

Lt. Col. Robert J. Molinari, a U.S. military official in Mosul, said investigators haven't found evidence suggesting the governor was the target.

Iraqi and U.S. forces launched an operation in the province last month in an effort to crack down on al-Qaeda in Iraq. Molinari said the operation has limited insurgents' ability to plant roadside bombs and launch mortar and rocket attacks.

"Overall, attacks remain low in Mosul compared to before" the operation began, he said in an e-mail Thursday night. "The insurgents are frustrated with new checkpoints, lack of material, and the constant detention or elimination of their key leaders."

This week, U.S. officials announced that they killed the military leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq in Mosul. The man, known as Abu Khalaf, was killed Tuesday during a raid, the U.S. military said.

Khalid al-Ubayde, 33, a graduate student in Mosul, said he didn't think the security situation in the city had improved since the offensive began. Iraqi security forces detained hundreds of suspected insurgents during the first week of the operation.

"When the security forces made their operations, they did it very quickly and withdrew because they didn't find any kind of resistance," he said. "The real gunmen were hiding."

White reported from Washington. Special correspondents Saad al-Izzi, Aziz Alwan and K.I. Ibrahim in Baghdad, Uthman al-Mokhtar in Fallujah and Dlovan Brwari in Mosul and staff researcher Robert E. Thomason in Washington contributed to this report.