Shiites on pilgrimage as police come under fresh attack (Suicide bomber)

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi Shiites took part in a mass pilgrimage banned during the 24-year rule of Saddam Hussein as a man blew himself up in Kirkuk in the latest of a series of attacks on the country's police.

Iraqi police meanwhile took fresh casualties in mounting violence against the US-backed force.

One officer died overnight from wounds sustained when attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a checkpoint in the northern oil center of Kirkuk Wednesday. Another policeman had died in that attack.

Also in Kirkuk, a man blew himself up Sunday, wounding a policeman and a civilian in an attempted grenade attack against a police checkpoint, police said.

"This attack is the latest in a series of terrorist acts that target local police and aim at destabilizing the situation in Kirkuk," said local police chief Lieutenant Colonel Adel Zeineddin.

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