Suicide truck bomb kills 8 people in Iraq

BAGHDAD — A suicide truck bomber attacked a small police station in a remote village north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least eight people, Iraqi authorities said.

The bombing was the latest in a series of attacks against small villages in northern Iraq, indicating insurgents are targeting relatively unprotected areas as Iraqi security forces focus on tightening security in the cities.

The Iraqi government is eager to demonstrate it can protect the population following the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from urban areas nearly two months ago. But a recent series of high-profile bombings that have killed hundreds in both major cities and remote areas has raised concerns Iraqi forces are not up to the task.

The bomber who struck at about 8 a.m. Saturday was targeting a small police encampment in Hamad, a primarily Sunni village that lies between Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit and Mosul, which the U.S. military considers to be the last urban stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq.

Police at a checkpoint attempted to stop the truck, forcing the attacker to change direction and slam into a concrete barrier close to an open air market, said officials from the Iraqi army and police. Initially, the officials reported five officers were killed in the blast. They later said eight people were killed, including three officers.

Ten people were also wounded in the attack, the police official said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Iraqi forces have stepped up security in Baghdad and other cities in Iraq since an Aug. 19 double suicide truck bombing in the Iraqi capital that targeted the foreign and finance ministries. About 100 were killed.

But remote villages often depend on a small security force for protection. Bombers have been exploiting that vulnerability in villages surrounding Mosul, mainly targeting ethnic minorities.

A double truck bombing on the outskirts of Mosul on Aug. 10 leveled portions of the town and killed 28 people, police said. On Aug. 7, a suicide truck bomber leveled a Shiite mosque north of Mosul, killing 44, authorities said.

Saturday’s attack comes as thousands mourned the death one of Iraq’s most powerful Shiite leaders, following behind Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim’s casket as it began the final leg of a two-day funeral procession to the southern holy city of Najaf from nearby Karbala, another holy Shiite city.

Al-Hakim, who died Wednesday of lung cancer in Tehran, was a powerbroker who help pave the path for the re-emergence of Iraq’s Shiite political majority after decades of oppression under Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-led regime.

He worked with Americans following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion even while maintaining his ties to Iran, where he lived in exile for 20 years.

Al-Hakim was scheduled to be buried in Najaf later Saturday.

Associated Press Writer Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report.