Attack on Iraqi police station kills 12
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-06 16:39

Insurgents attacked a police station south of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 10 Iraqi police and two civilians in a carefully orchestrated operation, police officers said on Sunday.

They said guerrillas disguised as police entered the building in the town of Musayyab, south of Baghdad, and forced policemen into a cell at gunpoint before planting explosives in the police station. When locals tried to free the police, the explosives were detonated, witnesses said.

A policeman who survived the attack said he was shot by the gunmen while guarding the entrance.

"I was shot and I lay on the floor pretending I was dead," he said in hospital, where he was recovering from bullet wounds to the chest and arm. He said he had heard one of the guerrillas ordering the others to plant explosives.

The police station was partly demolished by the blasts, witnesses said.

Insurgents have regularly targeted the Iraqi police who are seen by some as collaborators with the occupiers.