Suicide bomb and gun attack kills 33 in Iraq
A suicide bomb attack followed by an assault by gunmen on a police headquarters leaves 33 dead in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.
In the third major attack in or near the city this year, a suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives at the entrace of the police headquarters, a police official said.
“A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives hit the entrance of the headquarters and after the blast gunmen in explosive vests attacked with AK47s and grenades, but the guards killed them,” the official said. It was reported that there were at least two gunmen.
The attack blew a hole in the building’s concrete facade and destroyed cars outside.
Kirkuk is an ethnically mixed area of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen at the heart of a dispute over oil and land between Baghdad’s central government and the autonomous Kurdistan region.
Several armed groups are active in Kirkuk, and Sunni Islamist insurgents tied to al Qaeda often attack security forces in an attempt to undermine Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government and stoke sectarian tensions.
Last month a suicide bomber disguised as a mourner killed at least 26 at a funeral at a Shi’ite mosque in the nearby city of Tuz Khurmato, and days earlier a suicide bomber driving a truck killed 25 in an attack on a political party headquarters in Kirkuk.