World in brief: Suicide attack kills 3 Marines, others

Nearly 40 people were killed and more than 100 injured Thursday in a suicide attack at a town meeting in al-Anbar province and a coordinated rocket attack and bombing in the northern city of Mosul. The dead included three U.S. Marines.

The mayor and tribal chief in the Anbar town of Karmah al-Anbar’s Garmah were killed, along with the Marines and 16 other people, when a bomber blew himself up during a meeting of sheiks and city leaders. Another 20 people were injured.

The deaths of the three Marines brought to 4,113 the number of U.S. service members killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to the independent Web site icasualties.org. The 29 U.S. deaths this month represent a sharp increase over the 19 for all of May, which was the lowest number in any month since the U.S.-led invasion.

In the other major attack Thursday, Ninevah province Gov. Duraid Kashmola was inspecting the site of a rocket attack near the governor’s building in Mosul when a car bomb exploded. At least 18 people were killed and more than 70 injured in the two attacks. Kashmola was unharmed, police said.

Mexico City

Police official assassinated

A high-ranking federal police official and his bodyguard were assassinated here Thursday, the latest in a string of killings attributed to drug cartels seeking revenge against law enforcement agencies.

The killings appear to be part of a recent coordinated effort by drug cartels to go after the federal police agency, which is generally thought to be less corrupt than most state and local police forces. Thousands of federal police officers have been dispatched around the country in the past year and a half to confront the cartels and sometimes to disarm entire local police departments suspected of aiding drug traffickers.