BAGHDAD — At least 26 people were killed and more than 60 wounded across Iraq early Thursday, most of them in a suicide attack on a police compound, as a wave of bombings and assassinations continued to unsettle the country.
Shortly after sunrise, a suicide bomber drove a small Hyundai bus packed with hundreds of pounds of explosives into a police station in the city of Hilla, south of the Iraqi capital, killing 21 and injuring 52, police said.
The attack occurred during a shift change, and many of the officers killed were in the midst of a morning calisthenics routine, said Iraqi Police Capt. Fadhel Chenchun. He attributed the high death toll to the fact that the driver was able to enter what was supposed to be a secure parking area inside the station.
The reason he could enter the area was not immediately clear.
It was the second major bombing in Iraq since President Barack Obama announced the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. On Tuesday night, at least 16 people were killed and 35 wounded when a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb outside a cafe in Baghdad that was crowded with Iraqis watching a popular soccer match.
Chenchun, without citing any specific evidence, said he saw a connection between the attacks and the covert U.S. operation in Pakistan: “I accuse al-Qaeda of being behind these events as a retaliation for the killing of Osama bin Laden,” he said.
