The Iraqi government is eager to demonstrate it can protect the population following the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from urban areas nearly two months ago. But a recent series of high-profile bombings that have killed hundreds in both major cities and remote areas has raised concerns Iraqi forces are not up to the task.
Saturday's deadliest attack came at about 8 a.m. when a suicide truck bomber attacked a small police station in the remote village of Hamad north of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people, including six police, said officials from the Iraqi army and police.
Police attempted to stop the truck, opening fire and forcing the attacker to change direction and slam into a concrete barrier near a market, they said. The blast damaged the police station and a number of nearby homes and shops, the officials said. Fifteen people were also wounded in the attack, said the police official.
Hamad is a primarily Sunni village that lies on the edge of Shirqat, a town between Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit and Mosul, which the U.S. military considers to be the last urban stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq.
The attack comes three days after Iraqi police defused a car bomb in the same area, said Shirqat's police chief, Ali al-Jubouri.
"I think this attack is in retaliation for what we did," he said.
The second attack occurred near Mosul in the city of Sinjar, where a parked truck bomb that exploded at about 10:15 a.m. killed at least four people and wounded 23 others, another police official said.
All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The attack follows a double suicide bombing earlier this month in Sinjar that devastated a cafe packed with young people in northwestern Iraq, killing at least 21 people.
The attacks in Sinjar, a city dominated by members of the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi religious group, come two years after a village nearby was hit by four suicide truck bombers nearly simultaneously, killing as many as 500 Yazidis.
Iraqi forces have stepped up security in Baghdad and other cities in Iraq since an Aug. 19 double suicide truck bombing in the Iraqi capital that targeted the foreign and finance ministries. About 100 were killed.
But remote villages often depend on a small security force for protection. Bombers have been exploiting that vulnerability in villages surrounding Mosul, mainly targeting ethnic minorities.
While there were no immediate claims of responsibility for Saturday's attacks, suicide vehicle bombings are the hallmark of al-Qaida in Iraq. A front group for the terrorist organization has claimed responsibility for the recent ministry bombings.
