Including a top police officer
Two suicide bombers stormed into a police battalion headquarters in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Wednesday and killed the battalion commander, police sources said.
The sources said two militants detonated their explosive vests in the office of Lieutenant Colonel Shamil Ahmed, who headed the battalion in Mosul’s western area of Bab Sinjar.
A third suicide bomber was killed by police before he was able to enter the main building.
Destabilizing Iraqi authorities
While violence has subsided significantly in Iraq in the past years, insurgents frequently target the country’s government institutions and security forces in an effort to destabilize the U.S.-backed Iraqi authorities as American troops prepare to leave by the end of next year.
Police officals in Mosul, a former al-Qaeda stronghold located 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, said three men with explosive vests assaulted the compound housing Iraq’s 1st Battalion of the National Police early in the morning.
Police shot one of the bombers as the three approached the complex, while the other two managed to get inside and blow themselves up, killing the commander, officals said.
"Lieutenant Colonel Shamil (Ahmed) was known to be active in pursuing al-Qaeda members in Mosul and for this reason he was targeted," he said.
Police sources said one policeman was injured in the attack. Sources at the hospital and the city morgue said there did not appear to be any other fatalities.
Ongoing attacks
Earlier this month, Iraqi security forces arrested 12 al-Qaeda members in Mosul accused of making bombs and financing militant operations.
Ahmed himself had been the target of previous attacks and escaped an attempt on his life last year, a police source said.
Insurgents have stepped up attacks on police and troops in recent months as the U.S. military pulls back more than seven years after the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Although overall violence in Iraq has dropped sharply since the height of sectarian warfare in 2006-7, bombings and attacks are still a daily occurrence.
On Monday, twin suicide bombings rocked a government compound in the city of Ramadi, about 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad, killing 17 people and wounding dozens.