BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed at least nine people and wounded 11 others in an attack at a police station north of Baghdad on Saturday, Iraqi police said.
Four of those killed in the attack were police.
The blast, at about 8 a.m. (6 a.m. British time) in the town of Shirqat, 300 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad in Salahuddin province, destroyed many shops in the area, a police source in Shirqat said. The death toll may rise, the source said.
Iraq is struggling to recover from a rash of violence that has raised questions about the durability of security gains, including truck bomb attacks that killed almost 100 people at government ministries on August 19.
There also has been a series of attacks in areas of northern Iraq where tension is high between majority Arabs, ethnic Kurds and other minorities. Much of the violence has taken place in Nineveh province, near Shirqat.
The Shi'ite Muslim-led government, looking towards a general election in January, is striving to show Iraqis that it is on top of the security situation as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw gradually by the end of 2011.
(Reporting by Sabah al-Bazee; Writing by Missy Ryan; Editing by Louise Ireland)
