Suicide bomber kills 3 at Iraqi army checkpoint

PanARMENIAN.Net - A suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives at an Iraqi army checkpoint north of Baghdad on Tuesday, Feb 5, killing at least three people, police said, in an apparent attempt to destabilize the Shi'ite-led government, Reuters reported.

The blast in Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of the capital, followed another suicide attack in the same town a day earlier that killed at least 22 people.

It was the eighth suicide bombing in a month in Iraq, where insurgents are seeking to inflame tensions between Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurdish factions a year after U.S. troops pulled out of the country.

"There were patches of blood, pieces of clothing and shoes scattered around the place," said policeman Furat Fleh, whose patrol was near the checkpoint at the time of the blast. "We heard shooting and shouting after the explosion".

No group claimed responsibility for Tuesday's blast, but suicide bomb attacks are the hallmark of Iraq's local al Qaeda wing, Islamic State of Iraq, which has sent Sunni Islamist fighters and arms into Syria.