12 killed in attack on Iraqi police

Rebels launched an attack on an Iraqi police post near the city of Tikrit, killing 12 policemen, and a car bomb exploded in northern Baghdad injuring nine people, officials said today.

Arkan Mohammed, a government official in Tikrit, said 12 men died when gunmen attacked a station 12 miles south of the city, Saddam Hussein’s hometown.

US military spokesman Capt. Bill Coppernoll confirmed that there had been attack on police near Tikrit, but he could not provide casualty figures.

The car bomb in Baghdad targeted the home of a senior Iraqi National Guard officer in the Azimiyah neighbourhood, said Major Shaheed Attiyah of the Iraqi police. Nine of his guards and passers-by were injured, three of them seriously.

Insurgents frequently launch attacks the interim government’s security forces, and have killed hundreds this year.