A pair of suicide bombers, presumably from al Qaeda in Iraq, carried out a complex attack against Iraqi troops in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit. The first suicide bomber detonated amongst a crowd of Iraqi policemen and soldiers waiting to get their paychecks, and the second bomber struck as rescue teams aided those wounded in the initial attack. From Reuters:
One suicide bomber detonated his explosives among officers who were gathered outside the Rafidain bank in the center of Tikrit, 150 km (95 miles) north of Baghdad, and moments later another blew up a car when emergency workers arrived, police said.
“Just a few minutes after I entered I heard a huge explosion, we ran outside to see what was happening, I saw bodies and the wounded all over the place,” said Assam Dhiyab, a policeman who was collecting his unit’s wages in the bank.
A Tikrit hospital official said at least 15 people were killed and more than 30 wounded in the blasts. Most of the casualties were Iraqi soldiers.
Voice of Iraq said the casualties were 15 killed, including four policemen, and 38 wounded.
Al Qaeda in Iraq carried out two major suicide attacks in Tikrit during the month of June. On June 6, a suicide bomber killed 12 Iraqis, including four Army officers and five soldiers, in an attack on the Presidential Palaces compound in Tikrit. On June 4, a suicide bomber killed four people, including two policemen, in an attack on a university hospital in the city. Also, 17 people were killed and more than 50 were wounded in a bombing outside a mosque in Tikrit that is visited by government officials.
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