Jordan embassy blast: 11 dead

No group has claimed responsibility for the explosion. Iraqi police Captain Ahmad Suleiman said four civilians were killed in a car caught in the blast and five policemen outside the complex also died. Dozens of people were wounded, including seven from inside the embassy.

Jordan condemned the attack and pledged to bring the perpetrators to justice. ‘‘This is a cowardly terrorist attack that we condemn in the strongest terms. It will not divert us from our path of support and aid to the Iraqi people or the process of stabilisation,’’ Information Minister Nabil Al-Sharif said.

He said there were no reports of any embassy staff members having been killed. The Charge D’Affaires, Damay Haddad, was not at the compound at the time.

Captain Robert Ramsey of US 1St Armored Division said a truck had exploded outside the building at around 11 am.

In Tikrit, the commander of 4th Infantry Division said raids over the past day had captured four high-level suspects, including a leader of Saddam’s Fedayeen militia, captured in Tikrit, and two associates of Saddam’s son Uday.

The Fedayeen leader captured in Tikrit was tracked overnight after 39 men were turned out of a workers’ hostel, handcuffed and questioned by soldiers. Raid commander Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell said the man may have been a ‘‘national-level Fedayeen leader’’, funding and arming attacks on US troops beyond Tikrit. (Reuters)