A car bomb went off Tuesday as police exchanged fire with two gunmen outside a police station south of Baghdad, injuring at least a dozen people. The men drove up to the police station in Iskandariyah and started firing machine guns at police, who fired back, hitting one of the assailants before the car blew up, police Lt. Col. Khalil Abdul-Ridha said.
At least 11 police and a female bystander were wounded, he added.
Also Tuesday, three groups of gunmen abducted at least 24 Iraqis working at a money exchange and two electronics stores in Baghdad, the interior ministry said, according to the AP.
Meanwhile, a curfew was imposed Tuesday on the northern city of Beiji, where Iraq's largest oil refinery is located. Officials at a local military center said they were trying to prevent more violence after seven people were killed in the city last week.
In other violence, gunmen attacked a car carrying Iraqi contractors in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, killing two and wounding one, police Capt. Hakim al-Azzawi said.
Elsewhere, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in the northern city of Kirkuk, injuring four policemen and two children walking to school, police said.
In other developments Tuesday, an Internet statement purportedly posted by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an armed Sunni group, claimed responsibility for a suicide attack Monday near the gate of a U.S.-Iraq military base east of Tal Afar near the Syrian border. The bomber, wearing an explosives vest, struck shortly afternoon, killing at least 40 Iraqis and wounding 30 others, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said.
The council's statement said the bomber was a Saudi national.
