Rasool added that Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had been informed of the attack. An investigation is ongoing.
Two Iraqi security officials said nine other people were killed and that the explosive device was a bomb. They said three other police officers were wounded in altercations with militants that erupted after the blast, without elaborating.
SOLDIER DIES NEARLY 20 YEARS AFTER SUFFERING SERIOUS WOUNDS IN IRAQ, RESTS WITH FULL MILITARY HONORS
The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were authorized to speak to the media.
On Wednesday, 3 Iraqi infantrymen were killed when a bomb detonated a security operation in Tarmiyah district, north of Baghdad. Among the dead was the commander of the 59th Infantry Brigade.
No one has claimed duty for the attack either, however remnants of the Islamic State militant organization are active in the region and have claimed duty for attacks in Iraq in the past.
ISIS defeated and lost all the territory it once controlled in Syria and Iraq, and its last stronghold in Syria fell to the US-backed crusade in 2019. However, sleeper cells remain and have carried out attacks that have killed dozens of Iraqis and Syrians.
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In Iraq, militants have effectively exploited security holes in a swath of territory in the north due to an ongoing dispute between Baghdad and Irbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish-ruled region.
Rural areas of Kirkuk, Diyala, Nineveh and Salahaddin provinces in particular have been difficult to monitor because Iraqi security forces are scattered and Islamic State militants terrorize local residents.