Iraq: Police Raid Ends a Standoff With Insurgents
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Version 0 of 1. Iraqi police on Thursday stormed a shopping center in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing three militants and ending a standoff that had lasted several hours, the authorities said. The fighting began Wednesday when a car bomb exploded at the gates of a building housing a police intelligence unit, officials in Kirkuk said. A suicide bomber on foot then entered the police station and detonated his explosives. Gunmen on the roof of the nearby mall later opened fire on the police station, the officials said. Police officers raided the mall on Thursday morning before dawn, killing the militants, said Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir, Kirkuk’s police commander. The attacks on the police station killed five officers and two civilians and wounded 70 people, General Qadir said. In a statement posted on a militant website on Thursday, the Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacks on the police station. Also on Thursday, gunmen and bombs killed at least seven people and wounded 12 in separate attacks in Baghdad, northern Iraq and Madaen, south of Baghdad, the police said. |