8 killed in suicide car bomb in northern Iraq

TAL AFAR, Iraq, Oct 7: Eight people were killed and six wounded today when a suicide car bomber hit an Iraqi Army checkpoint in the northern town of Tal Afar, police said.

Colonel Kareem Khalaf from the Tal Afar police said four civilians were among the dead.

In March, US President George W. Bush held up Tal Afar, 420 km northwest of Baghdad, as an example of progress being made in Iraq after US-led forces drove out al Qaeda militants in a 2005 offensive. In May, a suicide car bomb killed 17 in a busy market in the town.

REUTERS