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Bomb hits Iraqi forensics centre Bomb hits Iraqi forensics centre
(30 minutes later)
A suicide car bomber has killed at least 17 people and injured 80 at a government forensics centre in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, police say. A suicide car bomber has killed at least 18 people and injured 80 at a government forensics centre in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, police say.
The attacker apparently tried to drive through a police checkpoint in the Kerrada district leading to the criminal investigations centre. The attacker apparently tried to drive through a police checkpoint and blast walls protecting the centre in the Kerrada district.
One report suggests the centre was badly damaged and the death toll, which includes three police, may rise. The building was badly damaged by the massive blast and the rubble was being searched by rescue teams.
Bomb attacks near well-known hotels in the city on Monday killed 36 people. On Monday, bomb attacks near well-known hotels in the city killed 36 people.
"The building collapsed soon after the explosion," an interior ministry official told AFP news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity."The building collapsed soon after the explosion," an interior ministry official told AFP news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Dozens of people usually work in the [forensics] institute.""Dozens of people usually work in the [forensics] institute."
An Iraqi military spokesman, Maj-Gen Qassim Atta, said the forensics centre had been the target of two bomb attacks in the past. The Associated Press news agency reports that rescue teams in blue jumpsuits were combing through the debris of the three-storey building as a crane removed some of the fallen blast walls.
"At 1045 [0745 GMT] a suicide bomber raced his vehicle towards the institute" and blew it up, the spokesman said. An Iraqi military spokesman, Maj Gen Qassim Atta, said the forensics centre had been the target of two bomb attacks in the past.
The attacks on Tuesday and the day before come against a background of improved security and stick out like sore thumbs, the BBC's Jim Muir reports from Baghdad. "At 1045 [0745 GMT] a suicide bomber raced his vehicle towards the institute" and blew it up, Gen Atta said.
This is the latest in a series of attacks on official buildings including those to do with crime and punishment, the BBC's Jim Muir reports from Baghdad.
The justice ministry was badly damaged in October by a huge truck bomb and a court complex was hit in December.
There have been fears that attacks will increase as the parliamentary election approaches in March and those predictions seem to be coming true, our correspondent says.
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