BAGHDAD, Jan 24: A suicide bomber in police uniform killed a top police official in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday as he toured the site of a blast a day earlier that killed 36 people and wounded scores, police said.

Rescuers were still digging through the rubble of Wednesday’s explosion in search of survivors when the attacker blew up next to Nineveh province police director Brigadier-General Salih Mohammed Hasan Atiya al-Jubouri, the US military and Iraqi officials said. US and Iraqi military officials said the suicide bomber walked up to Jubouri as he toured the site and detonated a vest packed with explosives. He died of his wounds as he was being rushed for emergency treatment.

Iraqi police had earlier incorrectly identified the senior police official killed as Brigadier-General Salih Mohammed Hasan, police chief in the Nineveh provincial capital Mosul.

The US military said two Iraqi police were also killed in Thursday’s blast. Police said an Iraqi journalist working for the Chinese state news agency Xinhua was among five others wounded, although no more information was immediately available.

The US military said a US soldier was also wounded.

US commanders have identified Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city, as Al Qaeda’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq after its fighters were driven out of western Anbar province and from around Baghdad during security crackdowns last year.—Reuters