TIKRIT – Gunmen wearing military uniforms and suicide vests were locked in a shoot-out with security forces on Tuesday after storming a Tikrit building in an attack that left at least 20 dead and 65 injured, Iraq officials said.
The gunmen swarmed into the building in the city of Tikrit, about 160 kilometres north of Baghdad, immediately after a suicide bomber detonated his payload and cleared the way, a police official said.A car bomb exploded shortly afterwards as police reinforcements were arriving, he said.
“We received 20 dead bodies and 65 wounded,” said a source at the Tikrit General Hospital, the biggest in the city. “A police colonel, Imad Nofan, and his deputy were killed in the car bombing,” the police official said.
The same explosion also killed journalist Sabah al-Bazi, who had reported for several local and international news organisations, the police official and other sources said. It was unclear whether hostages were being held or how many.
Police said employees were still inside the building while witnesses said that at least some had managed to flee the building from another exit.”
