DUBAI, Jan 3 (AFP) - The Al-Qaeda linked Ansar al-Sunna group claimed responsibility in an Internet statement for Monday's suicide car bombing near the Baghdad offices of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's political party in which four people died.
"One of the lions of Islam managed to carry out an heroic martyr operation against a large meeting of members of the servile police charged with protecting the headquarters of the National Accord of the apostate Iyad Allawi," read the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.
"The martyr drove through a first (police) roadblock before reaching a second roadblock... where he detonated his car bomb."
At least 24 people were wounded in the attack, many of them policemen.
According to the interior ministry, an explosives-packed car hurtled through a roundabout at 9:45 am (0645 GMT), where two police cars manned a checkpoint sealing off Zaitoun street, where the offices of Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party are located.
The attacker rammed his vehicle through a first checkpoint, running over a policeman and "at the second checkpoint, he blew himself up," said a policeman at the scene.
Besides hosting Allawi's party offices, the street where the attack took place leads to the fortress-like Green Zone and houses Iraqi security offices.
Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a US base in the main northern city of Mosul last month, killing 22 people in the deadliest single strike against the US military since the March 2003 invasion.
01/03/2005 17:10 GMT - AFP