Gunmen kill 16 in Iraq police station attack

Gunmen ambushed a police station in an Iraqi city today, killing at least 15 police officers and a guard at a nearby court.

The suspected insurgents struck at dawn in Muqdadiyah, 60 miles north of Baghdad, burning the police station and detonating a string of roadside bombs as they raced from the scene, police said.

At least seven others, including police officers and civilians, were injured in the attack.

The attack came a day after at least 39 people were killed by militants and shadowy sectarian gangs in Iraq. Reports yesterday showed that much of the violence targeted police.

Roadside bombs, one just a few hundred yards from an Interior Ministry lock-up in central Baghdad and one in a farming area near the so-called Triangle of Death south of Baghdad, killed at least seven police officials and one prisoner yesterday.

A policeman in a joint American-Iraqi patrol was killed in Baghdad during fighting with militants and a car bomb targeting a police checkpoint exploded in Baqouba, 35 miles north-east of Baghdad, killing another policeman, authorities said.