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| Iraq |
| Iraqi police targeted by suicide bomber, 15 killed |
| 2011-01-19 |
| A suicide bomber driving an ambulance killed up to 15 people and wounded more than 50 in an attack on Wednesday on an Iraqi police training center in volatile Diyala province, officials said. Suspected Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militia have stepped up attacks in recent months on Iraqi policemen and soldiers, seeking to undermine faith in the security forces before a full U.S. military withdrawal by the end of this year. Samira al-Shibli, a spokeswoman for the provincial governor said 15 people were killed and 52 wounded in the blast in the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad. Police sources in Baquba put the death toll at 14, and 64 wounded. Ali Hussein, general manager of Diyala health department, said only five were killed, and 74 wounded. One police source said there were two attackers. One of them shot dead three security guards at the gates of the training center, opening the way for a second assailant to drive the ambulance in. The blast caused part of the three-storey building, where offices for different departments of Iraqi police and security are located, to collapse, said Lieutenant Colonel Hisham al-Tamimi, head of the counter-terrorism department in Diyala. |
| Posted by:tipper |