Up to 15 people were killed and some 60 others wounded in suicide car bomb attack on a group of a police force Thursday morning in Iraq's central city of Hillah, a local police source said.
"The latest reports said that 15 were killed and 60 wounded by the suicide car bomb attack in the city of Hillah," the source from Hialla police told Xinhua on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak to the media.
The attack occurred in the center of Hillah, the capital city of Babylon province which locates some 90 km south of Baghdad, when the police were on a morning shift, the source said.
Many of the killed and wounded were policemen and several cars and nearby shops were damaged in the blast, he said, adding the police force has cordoned off the area for investigation.
The attack came as the Iraqi security forces increased security alert in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities as they expect deadly attacks to be
carried out by Qaida militants in retaliation for the killing of al-Qaida head Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan.
Violence and sporadic high-profile bomb attacks continue in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease of violence over the last three years.