Masked gunmen opened fire today on a police station near the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk, killing four, while twin car bombs exploded near government offices in the capital, killing at least 11 and wounding over a dozen.

The near-simultaneous explosions in a south eastern Baghdad neighbourhood targeted an Interior Ministry satellite office and at least a dozen people injured in the blast were taken to Yarmouk Teaching Hospital, doctors and witnesses said.

Three policemen were among the wounded, hospital staff said. The US military could only confirm that two car bombs exploded in Baghdad.

In Kirkuk, seven gunmen riding in two vehicles fired on the police station just south of Kirkuk shortly after dawn today, killing three police officers and one civilian, police Brigadier Sarhat Qadir said.

In Tikrit, Saddam’s hometown 80 miles north of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded outside a US military installation, injuring nine civilians and setting nearby houses ablaze, police Lt Col Amer Ahmed said.

The US military confirmed the car bomb attack at Tikrit, but didn’t give details.

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