Bombing in Dujayl kills at least 30
Early reports say the attacker was driving a car full of explosives. The Iraqi city is best known as the target of a campaign of vengeance by the late Saddam Hussein.
Baghdad -- A massive bomb in a farming city north of Baghdad killed at least 30 people today and injured dozens more, police said.
The attacker struck in Dujayl, about 40 miles north of the capital. Early reports from Ministry of Interior officials said the attacker was driving a car laden with explosives.
The mainly Shiite city is best known as the site of a campaign of vengeance by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein following an assassination attempt against him there in the 1980s. After the attempt on his life, the Sunni leader ordered the roundup of young Shiite boys and men and destruction of homes in the town. Hussein and six others were convicted in 2006 in the killings of 148 Dujayl residents, and Hussein was hanged for the crimes later that year.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for today's attack, but it bore the hallmarks of Sunni Muslim extremists. Police said the suicide bomber targeted a police station in Dujayl but that most of the victims were civilians.
Earlier today, a bomber blew himself up outside a Shiite mosque in Sinjar, about 65 miles west of Mosul in northern Iraq, during prayer services. Police and the military said two people were killed.
The ethnically mixed city is near the Syrian border, in an area frequently targeted by Sunni insurgents who cross into Iraq from Syria and then flee back across the frontier.
tina.susman@latimes.com
Special correspondents from Taji and Mosul contributed to this report.
