Tikrit, May 11: A car bomb exploded as a police patrol passed through the centre of Tikrit, north of Baghdad, today, killing at least 11 people, a security official said.Several policemen were among the dead in the attack, which struck at around 9:15 pm (local time) in the city, hometown of now executed dictator Saddam Hussein, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Although no group claimed responsibility for the attack in its immediate aftermath, Al-Qaeda’s offshoot in Iraq has vowed to carry out revenge attacks after the May 2 killing of its leader Osama bin Laden in a US raid in Pakistan.Today’s attack was the deadliest in Tikrit since a March 29 Al-Qaeda raid on the city’s provincial council offices, leading to a bloody hours-long gun battle with security forces that left 58 people dead.Tikrit remains volatile.
In mid-January, a suicide bomber killed 50 people in a crowd waiting outside a police recruitment centre, in the first major strike in Iraq since the formation of a new government on December 21.Violence in Iraq is down from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 211 people died in April as a result of violence, according to official figures.
——–PTI