Security forces stormed the provincial council building in former dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit on Tuesday after an hours-long shootout with gunmen that left 58 dead and 97 wounded, a police official said. "The latest toll is 58 dead and 97 wounded, and there are many with serious injuries, Six of the dead were the attackers," said the official, stationed at Tikrit's main hospital."
"The security forces have now taken over the provincial council building," a police official said, adding that three council members were among the dead. The gunmen, wearing military uniforms and suicide vests, had swarmed into the provincial council building in the city of Tikrit, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Baghdad, immediately after a suicide bomber detonated his payload and cleared the way, according to security officials. A car bomb exploded shortly afterwards as police reinforcements were arriving, they said. "A police colonel, Imad Nofan, and his deputy were killed in the car bombing," the police official said. The same explosion also killed journalist Sabah al-Bazi, who had reported for several local and international news organisations, the police official and other sources said.