Car bomb kills 5 Iraqi police in Baghdad
Attacks target U.S. convoys in Mosul
 |  A fireman extinguishes a car after a suicide bomber rammed into a police patrol in Baghdad Friday. |
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|  VIDEO |
 A car bombing at a checkpoint kills five Iraqi police officers.
 Falluja has paid a heavy price during the offensive.
 A safe house used by those loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is discovered.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide car bombing at a checkpoint in eastern Baghdad killed five police officers and wounded 10 other people, police said.
Four police officers and six civilians were wounded in Friday's explosion.
A police official said the bomber rammed a Mercedes-Benz through a police checkpoint and exploded the vehicle.
Elsewhere in Baghdad, two civilians were killed and seven others wounded in fighting outside a Sunni mosque, an Iraqi health official said.
Fighting broke out after Friday prayers at the Abu Hanifa mosque in the al-Adhamiya neighborhood.
A cleric delivered a blunt sermon against the U.S.-led offensive in Falluja, police said, and worshippers began to protest the offensive outside after the service.
Some protesters shot at Iraqi national guard members, who returned fire, police said.
Also, a mortar round appeared to strike the Green Zone, where many U.S. and Iraqi officials are headquartered. Smoke was seen rising from the sector.
No casualties were reported from the attack on the heavily guarded sector, a frequent target of insurgents.
Convoys targeted in Mosul
Violence also was reported in Baquba and Mosul, the northern Iraqi city where the U.S. military recently stepped up attacks against insurgent targets.
Capt. Angela Bowman of Task Force Olympia in Mosul said U.S. convoys were the targets of a rocket-propelled grenade attack and a roadside bombing, but there were no injuries in either case.
The northernmost and southernmost bridges are open, Bowman said, but soldiers at checkpoints are stopping all traffic.
A curfew is in effect until further notice. She added that there are "no occurrences of sustained fighting going on anywhere in the city."
Mosul -- a city with Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs -- is a key city because of the potential for ethnic disturbances. It is also strategically close to Iraq's northern oil fields.
U.S. forces in Mosul said ballot materials for the January elections had been destroyed. Efforts are under way to replace them.
Falluja cleanup
In Falluja, small groups of residents walked through the devastation in the center of the city, looking for food and other help in the aftermath of the battle.
Some civilians waved white flags so U.S. Marines and soldiers wouldn't shoot them. (Full story)
Meanwhile, plans are being made for reconstruction of the war-ravaged city.
Ambassador Bill Taylor, director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management Office, said members of the military so far have prepared for humanitarian work.
"They've pre-positioned a lot of stocks of food and water and medicine," Taylor said. "They have been preparing to start up on small reconstruction projects, in particular those that will restore essential services."
He said the U.S. and Iraq would pour money into the city.
"This could get into the order of $100 million or so into Falluja," Taylor said.
The city -- known as the city of mosques -- had been a command and control center for the resistance.
Other developments
An Islamic militant group warned Muslims on Thursday to skip Iraq's coming elections and said anyone who runs for office would be branded an infidel and "punished in the name of God." In its warning published on its Web site, the militant group Ansar al-Sunna said: "We ask all Muslims to respond to God's calling and avoid showing up at the election posts." Iraq's interim government plans to hold elections for a transitional parliament in January.CNN's Jane Arraf, Mohammed Tawfeeq, Cal Perry and Kevin Flower contributed to this report.
