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In Iraq, car bomb targets police station

20 February 2010 04:06 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. At least 23 people including police personnel were injured when a car full of explosives detonated in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, APA reports quoting Al Jazeera.

The explosion took place at 5:15 p.m. local time (1415 GMT) near a federal police headquarters in western parts of Mosul.

According to eyewitnesses, gunmen opened fire on the police as an unidentified man parked his vehicle near the police station and ran away before the explosion took place.

Security forces cordoned off the area after the attack and launched an investigation into the motives behind the terrorist act.

"Fifteen among those wounded in the blast were members of the Iraqi police personnel, including four officers," a local police source told Voices of Iraq news agency on the condition of anonymity.

He added that some of the wounded policemen and civilians were reported to be in critical condition.

The fatal incident came as Iraq is preparing for the crucial nationwide parliamentary elections in March. Officials have warned that militants trying to disrupt the vote would launch attacks more frequently as the election nears.

A volatile ethnic mix of Sunni Arabs, Kurds and Christians, Mosul remains the center of frequent terrorist acts and US commanders regard the once-cosmopolitan city as the last urban bastion of the so-called al-Qaeda in Iraq.