A suicide car bomber killed seven policemen and wounded three in an attack on a patrol in northern Iraq's Salahuddin province today, police said.
The explosion in the town of Dhuluiya, 70 km (45 miles) north of Baghdad, was the latest in a series of attacks by militants on Iraqi forces trying gradually to take over responsibility for Iraq's security from the US military.
Dhuluiya police chief Colonel Mohammed al-Jubouri said the blast was caused by a suicide car bomber.
Among the dead were a captain and a lieutenant, he said. The three wounded were taken to a US military hospital.
Earlier, police gave conflicting accounts, with an officer in the provincial capital Tikrit saying the explosion was caused by a roadside bomb.
