Suicide blast kills five in Iraq's Basra city

Suicide bomber detonates vehicle outside a police compound in southern oil port, killing five and wounding at least 25.


A suicide attack has left five people dead and at least 25 wounded in the Iraqi southern oil port city of Basra, police sources have said.
Monday's blast occurred when a suicide bomber in a car blew himself up outside a police brigade unit in the city.
"It was a suicide car bomb ... The bomber tried to drive into the compound but guards shot at him after he failed to stop and he detonated his vehicle," Ali Ghanem al-Maliki, the head of the Basra provincial council security committee, told the Reuters news agency.
At least four bodies were brought to a local hospital, health officials said. All of the casualties were police personnel.
A local police official told the AP news agency that the bomber crashed through the gate and made it a few metres into the compound before blowing up the car.
He spoke anonymously as he was not authorised to talk to the media.
The attack occurred during the morning rush hour.
The large explosion also damaged the police building and destroyed or damaged several vehicles at the main gate of the compound belonging to a police rapid reaction unit.
Basra, 550km southeast of the capital Baghdad, is becoming the hub for Iraq's burgeoning oil industry, and suicide bombings like Monday's are rare.
The province is crucial to Iraq's economy as 80 per cent of the country's oil exports, which comprise the vast majority of government income, pass through it before being shipped overseas.