Officials: Mortars target police, army station in northern Baghdad; 2 killed, 14 wounded

Mortars kill 2 Iraqi soldiers, injure 14

BAGHDAD — Two Iraqi soldiers were killed Tuesday in an overnight mortar attack on a security station in a Shiite neighborhood in northern Baghdad, police and hospitals officials said.

Another 14 people were wounded in the 1 a.m. attack on the joint Iraqi army-police office in the capital’s Hurriyah area, the officials said.

Three mortars hit the security station, according to two Iraqi police officials, and an army colonel was among the wounded. A hospital official confirmed the casualties.

All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.

It was the second big attack in Hurriyah in less than a week.

Last Friday, a car bomb at the district’s Hadi al-Chalabi mosque killed eight people and wounded 19. The bombing was part of what appeared to be a coordinated strike on Shiite worshippers across Baghdad.

In all, 72 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in the Friday bombings that also targeted Sunni police officials in the country’s western Anbar province.

Also Tuesday, unidentified gunmen in a speeding car opened fire on an Iraqi soldier in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, police said.

Kirkuk Police Col. Ahmed Shameran, identified the victim as Khalil Ibrahim, a 27-year old army lieutenant who was attending Kirkuk University.

An unidentified person with Ibrahim was injured. Kirkuk is about 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad.