Gunmen storm building of TV channel in Iraq's Tikrit: 6 killed

At least two staffers and four suicide bombers were killed Monday in an attack against the office of Iraq's Salahudin satellite channel and the nearby Iraqia official television's office in the northern Salahudin province, a provincial police source told Xinhua.

The attack took place in the afternoon when gunmen broke into the four-story building of Salahudin satellite channel in central Tikrit, the capital ofSalahudin, some 170 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, after they blew up a car bomb at the entrance of the building, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Fierce clashes broke out between the attackers and the guards of the building. The building caught fire and a column of black smoke could be seen rising at the scene. Iraqi security forces cordoned off the scene, while a police commando force unit broke into the offices and retook control of the building after a clash with the suicide bombers who blew themselves up in the building.

"Our latest report said that the troops found bodies of a man and a woman in addition to the bodies of four suicide bombers," the source said, adding that the blasts and the clash damaged the building and set fire to the third and fourth floors.

Tikrit, the capital of Salahudin province which is dominated by Sunni, is the hometown of former President Saddam Hussein.

Iraq is witnessing its worst violence in recent years. According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, 8,109 Iraqis, including 952 members of Iraqi security forces, were killed in the country from January to November this year.