Suicide bomber kills 7 policemen in northern Iraq

TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed seven policemen and wounded three in an attack on a patrol in northern Iraq's Salahuddin province on Sunday, police said.

The explosion in the town of Dhuluiya, 70 km (45 miles) north of Baghdad, was the latest in a series of attacks by militants on Iraqi forces trying gradually to take over responsibility for Iraq's security from the U.S. military.

Dhuluiya police chief Colonel Mohammed al-Jubouri said the blast was caused by a suicide car bomber.

Among the dead were a captain and a lieutenant, he said. The three wounded were taken to a U.S. military hospital.

Earlier, police gave conflicting accounts, with an officer in the provincial capital Tikrit saying the explosion was caused by a roadside bomb.

(Reporting by Sabah al-Bazee, writing by Tim Cocks)