By DPA
Baghdad : At least 23 people were killed and 72 injured Monday in separate suicide attacks in central and northern Iraq apparently targeting police officers and recruits, security and medical sources said.
North of Baghdad a suicide attacker detonated an explosives-laden tanker close to police headquarters in the city of Bayji, killing at least 15 people and wounding 30.
Security sources in the provincial capital Tikrit said the building partially collapsed owing to the explosion, while nearby houses were also severely damaged.
The attack occurred as a US military delegation was to visit the building. No information on possible US casualties was however available.
South of Baghdad, at least eight police recruits were killed and 42 injured, some seriously, in a suicide attack at the gate of the police academy in the central city of Hillah, security and medical sources said.
Sources said that a suicide bomber driving a car bomb blew himself up as the students, who were due to graduate this Thursday, were entering the gate.
A series of attacks targeting policemen have struck Iraqi cities in the past two weeks.