A suicide bomber driving a truck laden with explosives and filled with sand struck a police station north of Baghdad, the latest in a week of bombings that have killed nearly 80 people.
The truck was allowed through the main gate of the complex in Beiji, the site of Iraq's largest refinery, on Saturday after the driver told the guards he was delivering the sand to a construction site inside. The driver detonated his payload when two policemen approached him as he tried to enter a parking lot, police said.
The blast, which damaged nearby homes and sent shards of glass flying through the air, killed eight people and wounded 16, police said. It occurred in a neighborhood that is home to many refinery workers and engineers, but apparently was targeting the station.
Violence has been unrelenting in northern Iraq as insurgents fight back against a US-Iraqi security crackdown and a groundswell of public opinion that has turned Sunni tribal leaders against the terror network.
US troops killed 12 suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq militants and detained 13 in a series of raids in central and northern Iraq, including one that ended with an airstrike on a palm grove where gunmen had taken up position outside Youssifiyah, 20km south of Baghdad, the US military said.
The raids came days after an al-Qaeda front group, the Islamic State of Iraq, posted a message on an extremist Web site announcing a new campaign against members of so-called awakening groups. Those groups have turned against the extremists and been credited by the US with helping reduce violence nationwide.
Saturday's attack in Beiji capped a deadly week in which nearly 80 people were killed and dozens wounded in roadside bombs, car bombs and suicide attacks, most targeting Iraqi security forces or anti-al-Qaeda groups north of Baghdad.
"This attack will not deter us and the bombings will not frighten us because we are serving our country and protecting our citizens," said Colonel Hazim Jamil of the Beiji police force.
Police and witnesses said the bomber made it through the main gate by hiding his explosives under sand. He was stopped when he tried to drive his truck into a parking lot behind the police station. Guards had become suspicious that he was trying to enter an area that was not under construction.
"The truck exploded when the two policeman approached to try to ask the driver questions. After the explosion, we rushed to hide behind trees in order to avoid flying pieces of debris," said Qadouri Mohammed, who was collecting trash near the site of the blast.
A police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said the seven killed included five policemen and two civilians.
Beiji, 250km north of Baghdad, houses northern Iraq's largest oil refinery and serves as a key transfer point for crude oil being exported out of Iraq.
Violence is generally down throughout Iraq, largely due to a US troop buildup, the rise of the anti-al-Qaeda groups and a freeze on activities by the Mehdi Army ordered by the militia's leader, the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
But with the loss of many former sanctuaries, al-Qaeda groups are believed to be moving to more remote regions.
In the southeastern city of Kut, 160km from Baghdad, a rocket landed on the home of a senior member of the local Sadrist bloc of Shiite politicians, killing him, his wife and their two children, police said.
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