18 die in attacks on Iraqi police posts

Rebels launched multiple attacks on Iraqi police posts around the city of Tikrit, killing 18 policemen and injuring three, while a car bomb in northern Baghdad injured nine people, Iraqi and US officials said today.

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

Master Sergeant Robert Powell, of the Tikrit-based US 1st Infantry Division, also said militants launched four other attacks Tuesday morning on various police checkpoints in Tikrit, killing five Iraqi officers and injuring three others.

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.

Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen assassinated a police commander in Baqouba and wounded three other people, police said.

Captain Na’em Fahad was walking in downtown Baqouba, 35 miles north-east of Baghdad with three friends when gunmen opened fire from a car killing the officer, Lieutenant Saleh Hussein said.

Separately, a roadside bomb exploded near an ING patrol in the city this morning, injuring four guardsmen, Hussein added.

In the central city of Samarra, a suicide attacker detonated his car in the city centre wounding 10 people, including three children, police Major Saadoun Ahmed Matroud.

Shortly after the explosion, people were told through mosque loud speakers to stay indoors because of a curfew, and US and Iraq troops set up roadblocks, witnesses said.