Suicide bombers kill 20 Iraqi police
Two suicide bombers today killed 20 police officers and wounded another 96 in Hillah, south of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.
Colonel Adnan Abdul Rahman said the attacks happened at 6.16am Irishtime in Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, when two suicide bombers wearing explosive belts blew themselves up in the middle of group of policemen.
Iraqi police and soldiers immediately cordoned off the area.
Dr Ayad Jabr, of Hillah Hospital, said ambulances brought the bodies of at least 10 dead policeman to the hospital. Another 25 injured officers were brought to the hospital for treatment.
Captain Muthana Khalid Ali, from Hillah police, said about 500 policemen had gathered outside the local mayor’s office to protest a government decision to disband their special forces unit.
Ali alleged some policemen had presented fake documents to the Hillah mayor’s office several months ago approving the opening of a special forces unit in this city.
But the new government, announced on April 28, discovered the documents were not legitimate and decided to close the special forces station, Ali added. Interior Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.
Meanwhile, a senior Kurdish official died today after being shot by gunmen in Kirkuk, a government official said.
Major General Ahmed al-Barazanchi, director of internal affairs of Kirkuk province and former police chief, died in hospital early today after being shot a number of times on Sunday, said Ismail al-Hadithi, Kirkuk’s deputy governor.
“Insurgents have targeted him to arouse sedition and sectarianism,” al-Hadithi told Associated Press Television News. “He was walking without a bodyguard and in a sensitive area.”
The killing is the second in several days, following Friday’s killing of a moderate Sunni Muslim tribal leader, Sheikh Sabhan Khalaf al-Jibouri, who had close ties to Iraqi Kurds in the northern city of Kirkuk.
Kirkuk is an ethnically-mixed city 180 miles north of Baghdad.
Insurgents have routinely targeted moderate tribal leaders along with Kurdish and Turkomen officials, seeking to foment ethnic tension. Militants operating here have also attacked police.
| Related Stories: |
|
