30 killed in Iraq suicide bomb attack

At least 30 people were killed and 60 wounded in a suicide truck bomb attack on a Kurdish party office in the northern Iraqi town of Makhmour on Sunday, local police said.

"A suicide bomber, driving an explosive-laden truck, struck the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Makhmour town during a meeting in the building, killing at least 30 people and wounding 60 others, including the mayor of the town," police said.

The blast damaged the headquarters building along with nearby local government and police station buildings in the town located 100 km southeast of Mosul City, police said.

Massoud Barzani, head of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, heads the Kurdish party.

Four days ago, a suicide truck bomb struck the building of the Kurdish regional interior ministry in the city of Arbil, some 350 km north of Baghdad, killing 20 people and wounding 70 more.

In a separate incident, US and Iraqi security forces killed 15 insurgents in overnight clashes in an area near Balad in Baghdad, a provincial police source said Sunday.

And in another attack, gunmen shot dead five workers of a mill and wounded four in Mahmoudiyah town, near Baghdad, Sunday while police found 17 unidentified bodies from different parts of the capital.

The bullet-riddled bodies were bound and blindfolded, showing signs of torture.

First Published: May 13, 2007 18:24 IST