A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives killed eight Kurdish police personnel near a security forces patrol in an area north of Baghdad early on Sunday.
The attack took place in the center of Tuz Khurmato, a town 170 kilometers north of Baghdad, a notoriously unstable region.
The blast from the explosion also wounded nine officers, according to a statement given by district official Shalal Abdul Baban to AFP.
So far, responsibility for the attack has not been claimed by a group or individual. However, the attack is a trademark example of those carried out by al-Qaeda affiliated groups, according to Reuters.
Al-Qaeda has been regaining momentum in its insurgency in recent times against the Shiite-led Baghdad government.
According to violence monitoring group “Iraq Body Count,” more than 4000 people have been killed by militants in Iraq this year, of which more than 800 were killed in July alone.
The mounting violence from Syria’s civil war has had a catastrophic effect across the region, inflaming sectarian tensions and putting a growing strain on Iraq.
Iraq’s Sunni minority has been targeted for recruitment by Sunni insurgents, due to ever-increasing levels of resentment against the predominantly Shiite Iraq, following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
(With Reuters and AFP)
Also Read
-
U.S. poised to sell Iraq $2 billion in military equipment
The Pentagon has informed the U.S. Congress of a possible sale of $2 billion worth of military equipment to Iraq, officials said Friday. Lawmakers, ... Business -
Report: Al-Qaeda’s mass Iraq jailbreak was an ‘insider job’
Iraqi authorities believe an armed attack on two prisons on Sunday night, which freed hundreds of al-Qaeda combatants, was an “insider ... Middle East -
Gunmen kill five Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq
Gunmen killed five members of the Kurdish security forces at a checkpoint in northern Iraq on Sunday, bringing the day’s death toll from ... Middle East
