Suicide bombers kill 36 in string of attacks across Iraq

A STRING of suicide attacks aimed at Iraqi security forces killed at least 36 people and wounded 19 more in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul yesterday, the US military and police officials said.

The first attack happened at a police headquarters in Mosul at 6.15am killing 13 policemen and two civilians and wounding six more, said US Army Captain Mark Walter, a spokesman in Mosul. Earlier reports put the death toll at six.

A suicide bomber who hid explosives beneath watermelons in a pickup truck slammed into the headquarters, police and hospital officials said.

The explosion partially destroyed Bab al-Toob police station in a busy central section.

Policeman Mohammed Hussein Ali, 30, said he witnessed the attack in which a man who seemed to be driving watermelons to a market detonated his pickup truck just outside the two-story building.

All the roads were blocked at the time except for one that leads to the market, and the pickup truck was allowed to pass through a checkpoint, he said. The bomber detonated the pickup truck near a rear wall adjacent to the station.

“We didn’t suspect him. Every day we see such cars because we’re near a market,” Ali said.

Less than two hours later, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a car park outside an Iraqi army base on the outskirts of Mosul, killing 16 and wounding seven more, Walter said. Almost all of the victims were civilian employees arriving at the site for work, he said.

A third attacker strapped with a belt of explosives walked into Mosul Jumhouri Teaching Hospital at 2.15pm and blew himself up in a room for police officers guarding the facility, killing five policemen and wounding six others, police Brigadier General Wathiq Mohammed Tahr said.

Mosul, the country’s third-largest city, is 225 miles north-west of Baghdad and considered an insurgent stronghold.

The three attacks were part of bloodshed that killed at least 41 people throughout the country yesterday.

Elsewhere a roadside bomb killed a US soldier and wounded two others in central Baghdad yesterday morning. A US convoy struck the bomb at 10.40am, said Sgt. 1st Class David Abrams, a spokesman for Task Force Baghdad.

One of the wounded soldiers was treated and returned to duty. The military withheld the victims’ identities pending notification of their relatives.

Separately, a mortar round exploded at a house in eastern Baghdad’s Baladiyat neighbourhood, killing a woman and two children.