60 killed in Iraq suicide bombing: police

Suicide bombers and gunmen on Thursday attacked a bus transferring convicts from a prison north of Baghdad, sparking fierce clashes with security forces that left at least 60 dead, police said. Security and medical officials said that around 50 prisoners were among the dead, many of them burnt beyond recognition. A number of policemen also died. ‘At least 60 people, prisoners and policemen, were killed in a suicide attack followed by several IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and shooting,’ an interior ministry official has said. It was not immediately clear who launched the assault, which targeted a security convoy escorting a bus that was transferring around 60 prisoners, many of them held on terrorism charges, from the main prison in Taji, some 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of Baghdad. The attack took place at about 4:00am (0100 GMT), hours before UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was to hold talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in an effort to spur international mobilisation against a jihadist insurgency, according to AFP.