Gunmen ambush Iraqi police station: 16 killed

Gunmen ambushed a police station in the city of Muqdadiyah north of Baghdad Tuesday, killing at least 15 police officers and a guard at a nearby courthouse, police said.

Photo: Gunmen ambush Iraqi police station: 16 killed

The suspected insurgents struck at dawn, burning the police station and detonating a string of roadside bombs as they raced from the scene, a police spokesman in the region said.

At least seven others, including police officers and civilians, were injured in the attack in Muqdadiyah, which is about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital.

The attack came a day after at least 39 people were killed by insurgents and shadowy sectarian gangs in Iraq. Reports Monday showed that much of the violence targeted police officials.

Roadside bombs,  one just a few hundred yards from an Interior Ministry lockup in central Baghdad and one in a farming area near the so-called Triangle of Death south of Baghdad,  killed at least seven police officials and one prisoner Monday.

A policeman in a joint American-Iraqi patrol was killed in Baghdad during fighting with insurgents, and a car bomb targeting a police checkpoint exploded in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing another policeman, authorities said, reports the AP.

I.L.