Twin bombs rock Tikrit
2005-04-24 08:23
Baghdad, Iraq - A car bomb exploded outside a police academy in northern Iraq on Sunday, and when police set up a checkpoint to close off the area, a second car bomb exploded nearby, authorities said. At least six Iraqis were killed and 25 wounded, a hospital official said.
The co-ordinated attack in Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, occurred just as new police recruits were about to leave the academy and travel to Amman, Jordan, for a training programme, said police Lieutenant Shalan Allawi. Tikrit is 130km north of Baghdad.
At Tikrit General Hospital, Dr Mohammed Ayash said four policemen and two civilians were killed by the bombs, and 23 policemen and two civilians wounded.
South of the capital, three insurgents were killed on Sunday as the roadside bomb they were trying to plant in the town of Mahawil exploded, police said in the nearby city of Hillah.
The explosions were the latest in a series of stepped up attacks by insurgents, as a US-financed programme works hard to train new Iraqi military and police recruits in the hope they can improve security in Iraq and one day replace the coalition forces.
On Saturday, at least 16 people were killed, including an American soldier, as the insurgents struck across the country with a series of bomb attacks.
- AP