SULEIMANIYA, Iraq—Insurgents mounted a deadly siege on a provincial government building in northern Iraq, the latest in a series of incidents that have raised questions about the ability of Iraqi security forces to defend government facilities ahead of the withdrawal of U.S. troops at the end of the year.
The attack in Tikrit Tuesday, which lasted more than five hours, killed at least 55 people and wounded at least 96 others, including top police officials, three provincial council members and three journalists.
The attack on the provincial government building was carried out by an unknown number of men dressed in Iraqi army and police uniforms, an Interior Ministry official said.
They fired mortars before overcoming the security detail and entering the building. Top provincial police officials were killed, and a number of others were taken hostage by the attackers, the official said.
A car bomb near the entrance was detonated as other security forces arrived.
Nearby U.S. forces responded to the initial incident but didn't get directly involved, according to Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman.
"Our assistance has been limited to providing aerial surveillance of the scene and keeping our soldiers on site to receive further requests for assistance if needed," Col. Johnson said.
The siege ended when Iraqi forces entered the building, supported by U.S. helicopters, and killed all of the insurgents, the Interior Ministry official said.
The northern provinces of Salahadin, Diyala and Ninewa continue to be a place of frequent attacks by insurgents, including those linked to al Qaeda in Iraq.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the siege in Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
It follows months of high-profile and coordinated attacks throughout the country that have included killings and assassination attempts on government officials, politicians and security forces.
U.S. forces are due to withdraw from Iraq at the end of 2011, posing a further challenge to Iraqi security.
Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for a siege on a church in Baghdad in October and an attack on a police recruiting center in Tikrit in January, which killed more than 50 people. Iraqi police also blame al Qaeda for the Feb. 26 bombing of the Beiji oil refinery and a separate attack on an export pipeline, both located in Salahadin province.
While violence has decreased in Iraq since the high point in 2007, when the daily death toll often reached into the hundreds, Iraq still faces huge challenges.
More than a year after national elections, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki retains the interior, defense and national security portfolios, having yet to appoint ministers to those positions.
Political factions managed to put together a fragile coalition government, but it remains subject to sectarian and ethnic in-fighting.
Iraqis still complain of a lack of basic services, and checkpoints and concrete blast walls are pervasive in a country still incapable of fully beating back insurgent groups and armed militias.
—Ali Nabhan in Baghdad contributed to this article.
Online.wsj.com
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