Militant attacks kill 18 ahead of Iraq poll

INSURGENTS detonated a suicide car bomb at police headquarters in the Iraqi town of Baiji yesterday, killing at least 10 people, and shot dead eight Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint ahead of January 30 polls.

Witnesses said burned bodies were scattered in the compound in Baiji, an oil refining town in the Sunni heartland north of Baghdad. A police official said at least 20 people were wounded, mostly police.

Near Baquba, another guerrilla stronghold northeast of the capital, gunmen opened fire at a checkpoint and killed eight soldiers, a National Guard officer said.