Iraq: Police headquarters attacked, 30 dead

On February 3, the police headquarters in the city of Kirkuk, northern Iraq, was subjected to a series of serious attacks. At least 30 people were killed and about 70 were injured in this incident.

First, a suicide car bomb targeted the headquarters in downtown Kirkuk. Next, the attackers threw grenades. The car they used in the bombing was painted to look like a police car and the attackers were dressed as police.

The scene of a bomb attack at the police headquarters in Kirkuk city. (Source: BBC)

According to witnesses, after the bomb explosion, three people holding grenades and wearing explosive vests tried to break into the police headquarters through the main door but were soon killed.

In addition to heavy casualties, the attack also caused extensive damage to nearby buildings and shops. Police have virtually blocked traffic in central Kirkuk and evacuated offices and businesses from the area to continue detonating the explosive vests worn by the attackers.

No organization has yet claimed responsibility, but Sunni Muslim militants, including the leading group of the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Iraq, often target security forces and the government in an attempt to destabilize Iraq and push it back into bloody ethnic conflicts like what happened in the 2005-2008 period.

The deadly attack shattered the relative calm of recent days in Iraq, signaling rising tensions amid a political crisis that has seen protests calling for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to resign.

Kirkuk, 240 km north of Baghdad, is a multi-ethnic city with Arabs, Kurds and Turks. It is at the centre of an oil and land conflict between the Baghdad government and the autonomous Kurdish community in the north of the country./.

According to (TTXVN) - DT