45 die in 24 hours in Iraq

2006-09-20 11:58

Baghdad - A suicide truck bomb slammed into a Baghdad police headquarters on Wednesday, killing seven and wounding at least double that many, in a deadly 24 hours that saw more than 45 killings in Iraq, including two American soldiers, authorities said.

The truck bomb attack in the southern Baghdad neighbourhood of Dora came at 07:45 as policemen were coming on duty and the blast razed the building, said captain Jamil Hussein. He said the number of casualties was expected to rise.

Another policeman was killed when a mortar round landed near a patrol in northern Baghdad, police lieutenant Bilal Majid said. Two civilians were also wounded in the attack in the Waziriya neighbourhood, Majid said.

Meanwhile, Mosul police confirmed that tandem bombings killed 21 people near the northern city and wounded 50 others.

A parked car bomb detonated near an Iraqi army base in Sharqat, about 70km south of Mosul, on Tuesday night, and a suicide bomber detonated his explosives as a crowd gathered at the scene of the first bombing, police said.

In another incident, the US military said on Wednesday an American soldier was killed by a roadside blast northeast of Baghdad the previous afternoon.

Attacks around Iraq on Tuesday killed at least 16 Iraqis, including 10 in a rocket attack on a Shi'ite neighbourhood of Baghdad. At least 55 others were injured in the attacks around the country.

- AP