In Iraq, nine soldiers have been killed by a roadside bomb on the outskirts of the main northern city of Mosul. The off-duty troops were in a minibus on a road heading north-west from Mosul when the vehicle struck the bomb. Six other soldiers, all members of the Iraqi army's Third Division, were wounded in the attack, police said. Mosul, 350 kilometres north of Baghdad, and surrounding Nineveh province remain one of the most violent areas of Iraq, even as attacks in the rest of the country have dropped off. According to Iraqi figures, Violence appears to have risen again in recent months, with July and August recording two of the highest monthly death tolls since 2008.