Four people killed in Basra suicide blast

Four people were killed when a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a police building in southern Iraq.

Police chief Brigadier Faisal al-Ebadi said the bomber crashed through the gate during the morning rush hour and made it a few yards into the police compound before blowing up the car in the city of Basra.

Three policemen and one civilian were killed and 24 people were injured.

A health official confirmed the causality figures.

Basra, 340 miles south-east of Baghdad, is becoming the hub for Iraq's burgeoning oil industry, and suicide bombings like today's are rare.