At least 50 Christian families fled the Northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday after a wave of killings targeting the Iraqi minority, a security source said on Friday.

"Some 25 families fled Mosul on Wednesday followed by 50 families on Thursday for the fear of being targeted by armed groups," a local security source told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

According to Khaled Abdel-Sattar, spokesman for Iraqi security forces in the area, five Christians have been killed in the past few days.

Turkish war planes backed by artillery on Thursday night conducted attacks on a large group of Kurdish separatists inside northern Iraq, the Turkish military announced on Friday.

An Iraqi lawmaker from the Sadrist bloc died Thursday in Baghdad from wounds sustained in a bomb blast that struck his convoy, a bloc spokesman reported.

Lawmaker Saleh al-Eikily initially fell into a coma brought on by internal bleeding in his brain. He died before surgery to stop the bleeding could be conducted, Ahmed al-Massoudi, a Sadrist spokesman, told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

The Turkish parliament Wednesday extended for one year a mandate that
allows the Turkish military to launch cross- border operations into
northern Iraq to hunt down Kurdish separatists, who use the mountainous
terrain as a base from which to launch attacks inside Turkey.

The mandate was carried by a clear majority, with 511 deputies
voting in favour and only 18 against. The original mandate was due to
end October 17. It now runs through October 2009.

The vote in parliament came just a few days after the Kurdish

Four Kurdish separatists and one Turkish soldier were killed Tuesday in south-east Turkey, the Turkish military announced Wednesday.

In a short statement posted on its official website, the Turkish General Staff said the four Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) separatists were killed in a firefight with Turkish soldiers that broke out around 9 pm Tuesday night in a mountainous area of the Sirnak region.

In a separate clash, a soldier was killed in the Dicle region of Diyarbakir province, the statement said.

A mortar attack on Iraq's foreign ministry took place on Tuesday as visiting US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was due to hold a press conference in the Green Zone compound, al-Jazeera satellite channel has reported.

Two mortar rounds had landed in the area. At least five people were injured in the incident.

The Foreign Ministry building is adjacent to the fortified Green Zone government and diplomatic compound, where the US embassy and Iraqi parliament are located.

Iraq's Presidential Council on Tuesday unanimously endorsed a long-delayed provincial councils' election law, state- controlled media reported.

A statement from the presidential office said that article 50, a controversial article which deals with minority rights, had been referred to parliament for further consideration.

Iraq's parliamentary speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani arrived in Tehran Tuesday for a two-day visit after his plane was intially refused permission to land the day before, Fars news agency reported.

The Sunni politician was to meet his Iranian counterpart Ali Larijani as well as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to discuss the latest developments in Iraq, including its security pact with the United States, Fars said.

Iran opposed the bilateral agreement between Washington and Baghdad, claiming the US presence would disturb regional stability.

Two blasts occurred outside Iraq's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday as visiting US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was due to hold a press conference in the Green Zone compound, al-Jazeera satellite channel reported.

The Foreign Ministry building is adjacent to the fortified Green Zone government and diplomatic compound.

Journalists were gathering for a news conference to be given by Negroponte and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari when the blasts took place, al-Jazeera reported.

Arab League envoy to Iraq, Hani Khalaf, is expected on Monday to resume the diplomatic work of the Arab League mission in Baghdad, the state Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

In July Arab League Chief Amr Mussa appointed the retired diplomat, an Egyptian national, to head the Arab League representation in Iraq.

Khalaf made a number of visits to Baghdad in August to check the security situation there.