10:17 NZDT Mon Feb 4 2013
Thirty
people have died in a suicide car bombing and an assault by
grenade-throwing gunmen on a police headquarters in northern Iraq.
10:17 Mon Feb 4 2013
AAP
An Iraqi firefighter walks past the scene of the car bombing.
A suicide car bombing
and an assault by grenade-throwing gunmen on a police headquarters in a
disputed ethnically mixed city in north Iraq has killed 30 people,
security officials say.
The vehicle that was detonated in central Kirkuk had been painted to look like a police car, and the militants who sought to seize the compound were dressed as policemen, witnesses said.
Sunday's attack shattered a relative calm in Iraq, which has been grappling with a political crisis pitting Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki against his erstwhile government partners amid weeks of protests calling for him to resign, all less than three months before key provincial elections.
No organisation immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
But local security officials blamed al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq, which often targets security forces and officials in a bid to destabilise the country and push it back towards the sectarian bloodshed of 2005 to 2008.
The suicide car bomb was set off during morning rush-hour and quickly followed by at least three gunmen wearing police uniforms, armed with hand grenades and suicide vests, bursting through the main gate of the Kirkuk police compound in the direction of the headquarters building.
They threw multiple grenades as they sought to reach the building, but were killed before they could reach it, witnesses said.
Brigadier General Natah Mohammed Sabr, the head of Kirkuk city's emergency services, put the toll at 30 dead and 88 wounded. Among the casualties were four policemen killed and 12 wounded.
Brigadier General Sarhad Qader, commander of police forces for areas surrounding the city, was one of the security force officers hurt.
"I saw a vehicle stop at the checkpoint at the main entrance, and the police started checking it," said Kosrat Hassan Karim, who was nearby when the attack took place.
"Suddenly, a loud explosion happened, it was terrifying.
"I saw many people killed inside their cars - I have never seen such a big explosion in my life."
In addition to the casualties, the attack caused massive damage to nearby buildings and shops, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
The massive explosion also killed people in nearby buildings. Mohammed Aziz, who works in an office building adjacent to the police headquarters, said at least two of his colleagues died in the blast.
"It seems they came to free prisoners, because they came in a very organised way," General Qader, who suffered back wounds but is now in stable condition, told AFP from a hospital in Arbil north of Kirkuk.
"But the police clashed with them, and we killed all of them."
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The vehicle that was detonated in central Kirkuk had been painted to look like a police car, and the militants who sought to seize the compound were dressed as policemen, witnesses said.
Sunday's attack shattered a relative calm in Iraq, which has been grappling with a political crisis pitting Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki against his erstwhile government partners amid weeks of protests calling for him to resign, all less than three months before key provincial elections.
No organisation immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
But local security officials blamed al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq, which often targets security forces and officials in a bid to destabilise the country and push it back towards the sectarian bloodshed of 2005 to 2008.
The suicide car bomb was set off during morning rush-hour and quickly followed by at least three gunmen wearing police uniforms, armed with hand grenades and suicide vests, bursting through the main gate of the Kirkuk police compound in the direction of the headquarters building.
They threw multiple grenades as they sought to reach the building, but were killed before they could reach it, witnesses said.
Brigadier General Natah Mohammed Sabr, the head of Kirkuk city's emergency services, put the toll at 30 dead and 88 wounded. Among the casualties were four policemen killed and 12 wounded.
Brigadier General Sarhad Qader, commander of police forces for areas surrounding the city, was one of the security force officers hurt.
"I saw a vehicle stop at the checkpoint at the main entrance, and the police started checking it," said Kosrat Hassan Karim, who was nearby when the attack took place.
"Suddenly, a loud explosion happened, it was terrifying.
"I saw many people killed inside their cars - I have never seen such a big explosion in my life."
In addition to the casualties, the attack caused massive damage to nearby buildings and shops, according to an AFP journalist at the scene.
The massive explosion also killed people in nearby buildings. Mohammed Aziz, who works in an office building adjacent to the police headquarters, said at least two of his colleagues died in the blast.
"It seems they came to free prisoners, because they came in a very organised way," General Qader, who suffered back wounds but is now in stable condition, told AFP from a hospital in Arbil north of Kirkuk.
"But the police clashed with them, and we killed all of them."
copy http://news.msn.co.nz/worldnews
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