TIKRIT: A suicide bomber killed nine Iraqi policemen and injured dozens on Sunday as he exploded his truck outside a police post near the northern hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein. The bomber detonated the vehicle against a police department building in an area called Albu Ajil, east of Tikrit, on the main road between the city and the oil hub of Kirkuk, police officials said.At least 40 people, many of them policemen, were also injured in the attack that took place at 10:15am, they said. “Nine policeman have died in the blast and 40 more are injured, mostly policemen,” Major Abdul Karim Mohammed, a security official at Tikrit general hospital, told AFP. Following the blast, Tikrit police announced on loudspeakers an indefinite curfew in the city, an AFP reporter said.
The attack came a day after a suicide bomber exploded his truck at an Iraqi army base near the town of Iskandiriyah, southwest of Baghdad, killing 12 soldiers and injuring 30. Car bombs were also reported in Baghdad and the restive province of Diyala on Sunday.