A car bomb exploded at a police station in the western Baghdad district of Rasafa on Tuesday, causing an unknown number of casualties, a police officer in the station said.
The attack occurred right next to Baghdad’s main police academy and across the street from Baghdad’s police headquarters and the Interior Ministry.
”A car bomb went off at about 11.30am [7.30am GMT]. Most of the injured are policemen,” said Lieutenant Khaled, but he refused to give any more details.
One witness, Ahmed Mohsen, said the car had exploded inside the station’s parking lot.
”There was an explosion and then the fire spread to the other vehicles and police vehicles,” Mohsen said.
American vehicles were surrounding the area as smoke billowed from the site.
Khaled said the station’s chief, General Amer, had a grenade lobbed at his house on Monday night.
The police academy and headquarters area is heavily patrolled with the main street cordoned off by checkpoints.
The blast came as a leading Muslim Shiite leader, killed in a car bomb massacre in Najaf on Friday, was being buried there amid a mass outpouring of grief. — Sapa-AFP