BAGHDAD, Oct 23 (AFP) - Insurgents in Iraq killed at least 11 police and national guardsmen in two suicide car bombings on Saturday, while a roadside bomb in Baghdad wounded six US soldiers.
The first car bomb ripped through a police academy in the town of Baghdadi, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) west of the Iraqi capital near a US marines camp, as policemen gathered to attend a training course.
"A suicide bomber drove into the academy where police were training and blew himself up," said Mujtaba Ahmed al-Hiti, police chief in the nearby town of Hit. "The attack left 10 people dead and 40 wounded."
US marines spokesman Lieutenent Lyle Gilbert, confirming that 10 police were "killed in action" in the bombing, just a few hundred metres (yards) from a marine camp called al-Asad.
Gilbert said five wounded policemen were being treated at a US medical facility and added that there were no US casualties.
Police and other members of Iraq`s security forces are a favourite target in the insurgency that flared up in the aftermath of last year`s US-led invasion and which US and Iraqi officials are desperate to crush.
A second suicide bomber struck about half an hour later in a farming town north of Baghdad, with an initial death toll put at four.
"A car bomb, driven by a suicide driver, exploded at 8:00 am (0500 GMT) at an Iraqi national guard checkpoint in Ishaki -- 20 kilometres (13 miles) south of Samarra -- killling four and wounding six, all of them guardsmen," said Hamid Ahmad from the police in neighbouring Balad.
Iraq`s National Security Advisor Kassem Daoud later confirmed the attack during a Baghdad press conference but revised the toll to one killed and two wounded.
Ishaki is close to the Sunni Muslim bastion of Samarra, which US and Iraqi troops stormed at the start of the month to wrest control from rebel forces, More than 150 people were killed, including 20 civilians.
The offensive was the first major push to retake a Sunni rebel bastion ahead of national elections planned for January.
Outgunned militarily, insurgents have also turned to detonating bombs on passing US or Iraqi patrols.
In Baghdad, six US soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in the path of their vehicle early on Saturday.
An AFP reporter at the scene said he saw a Bradley fighting vehicle in flames at the entrance to the road that leads to Baghdad`s international airport -- one of the most dangerous highways in Iraq for roadside blasts and ambushes.
A rocket also slammed into the building that houses Iraq`s Bar Association in Baghdad, not far from a national guard headquarters, causing damage but no casualties.
10/23/2004 14:28 GMT - AFP