A suicide bomber slammed an explosives-laden van into a police station in northern Iraq on Sunday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 25 more, officials said.
Lieutenant Colonel Hur Baz of the police in Ad-Dawr said that 12 people — police officers and prisoners being held in his cells — were killed outright when the blast devastated the local police department.
The 25 wounded included police, prisoners and civilian visitors, he said.
Earlier Hammad al-Duri, a media officer at the Iraqi security forces joint command centre in nearby Tikrit, had put the death toll at 15. Police Captain Ahmed Yassin said the station was all but destroyed.
The station is about 20km south of the town of Tikrit, hometown of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, whose execution last month triggered protests in the region, including Ad-Dawr.
It was not immediately clear which of Iraq’s many armed groups was behind the attack, but police are regularly targeted by Sunni insurgents opposed to Iraq’s new Shi’ite-led government and its United States sponsors. — Sapa-AFP