3 killed in attacks on police HQ in Iraq's Tikrit

Suicide car bombing, mortar and gunfire attacks targeted a police headquarters in Tikrit, capital of Iraq's northern Salahudin province on Tuesday, killing at least three people and wounding five others, a provincial police source said. The attacks occurred in the morning, when a booby-trapped car was detonated near the entrance of the anti-explosive affair headquarters near the compound of the provincial government of Tikrit, some 170 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The car bombing apparently was aimed at distracting the guards in order to pave the way for four suicide bombers wearing explosive vests to break into the headquarters, but the policemen guarding the headquarters opened fire and forced them to blow up the vests before getting closed to their target, the source said. In the meantime, several mortar rounds were fired at the scene, while an unknown number of gunmen clashed with the security forces, the source added. The attacks resulted in the killing of a police officer and two policemen and the wounding of three policemen and two civilians, the source said, adding that it was not immediately clear how many gunmen were killed and wounded by the clashes. Tikrit, capital of the Sunni-dominated Salahudin province, is the hometown of former president Saddam Hussein. Iraq is witnessing its worst eruption of violence in recent years, which has raised fears that the country is sliding back to the full-blown civil conflict that peaked in 2006 and 2007, when monthly death toll sometimes exceeded 3,000.