Triple suicide bombing hits Kurds in Iraq

A triple suicide attack tore through a Kurdish compound in eastern Iraq, killing at least 29 members of the security forces and wounding 88, according to hospital and security officials.

The attack happened in Qara Tappah, in the eastern Diyala province, about 120km northeast of Baghdad.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from Erbil, said the attack was a triple car bombing.

“They targeted three different locations in close proximity to each other – two of them were used as bases by Kurdish security forces, a third by the PUK political party,” she said.

“The Kurds are at war and definitely this is a major blow, especially as of late Kurdish forces, with the help of US-led air strikes, have been able to capture back territory from ISIL in recent weeks.”

Kurdish sources told Al Jazeera that the death toll was likely to rise. 

Police chief slain

In a separate incident, officials said a bomb killed the police chief of Anbar province. 

Faleh al-Issawi, a councilman, told the Associated Press news agency that the bomb went off on Sunday morning near a convoy carrying Brigadier General Ahmed al-Dulaimi in the vast province west of Baghdad.

The convoy had been travelling through an area to the north of the provincial capital, Ramadi.

Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from Baghdad, said that authorities had responded to the attack by imposing a curfew. 

“This is seen as quite a major attack,” Khan said. “Enforcing the curfew will be difficult because ISIL are in control of much of the province.”

It was not immediately clear if others were killed. The councilman said Iraqi security forces had recaptured the area from the rebels a day earlier.

Anbar has seen a growing rebellion since early this year. Groups led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, have fully controlled the city of Fallujah, parts of Ramadi and rural areas.

The upsurge in violence in Anbar comes as ominous warnings were sounded that ISIL could be close to taking over the whole of the province.

US defence officials said Iraqi government forces were in a “tenuous” position in Anbar, where the few remaining government-controlled areas have come under repeated attack from ISIL.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.