Death toll in Mosul blast climbs to 12

The death toll from a suicide bomb last in a hospital compound in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul this morning has reached 12.

All 12 victims were policemen. Four others were injured, hospital officials said.

In the attack at the Jumhouri Teaching Hospital, a suicide bomber set off explosives outside the hospital building among a group of Iraqi policemen, hospital Director Tahseen Ali Mahmoud al-Obeidi said.

“I heard an explosion. When I went to check, I saw bodies everywhere,” al-Obeidi said.

The city of Mosul, Iraq’s third largest, has seen daily insurgent attacks and rebel clashes with US troops and Iraqi security forces. Violence has surged since a guerrilla uprising in November drove out nearly all of the city’s police force.

Also this morning, insurgents have shelled a police station in the city with more than a dozen mortar rounds, killing three civilians, a police official said.

A car bomb has also exploded outside the main gate of the provincial police headquarters in the city of Baqouba, north of Baghdad.

It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties in that attack.