TIKRIT, Iraq, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Ten people were killed and 30 wounded when a suicide tanker truck bomber struck the police headquarters in central Tikrit city, capital of Salahudin province, on Monday, a provincial police source told Xinhua.
The attack took place in the morning when a suicide bomber blew up an explosive-laden tanker truck near the police headquarters and a nearby fuel facility in central Tikrit, 170 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, the source said on condition of anonymity.
"Seven of the killed were policemen and most of the wounded are also policemen," the source said.
The guards of the headquarters may not have suspected the tanker truck because the fuel tanker trucks usually enter the nearby fuel facility to deliver gas and oil used by provincial government offices, the source said.
"The reports put the toll at 10 killed and 30 wounded by the blast which destroyed parts of the two buildings and set a huge fire at the oil facility," the source added.
Iraqi security forces cordoned off the scene and blocked all the roads leading to central Tikrit, while ambulances and police vehicles evacuated the victims to the city hospitals and medical centers, he said.
Earlier, the source said that eight people were killed and 15 wounded by the suicide attack.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks. However, al-Qaida front in Iraq frequently claimed responsibility for most deadly attacks in the country, raising fears that the terrorist group could return to spread violence, particularly as Iraq is trying to fend off the spillover of violence from the ongoing conflict in the neighboring Syria.
Violence and sporadic high-profile bomb attacks are still common in Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease in violence since its peak in 2006 and 2007, when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.
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