ARBIL (Iraq), June 20: A suicide bomber killed 13 Iraqi traffic police on Monday when he rammed an explosives-packed car into them on a sports field in the Kurdish city of Arbil. Ansar al Sunna, an extremist group linked to the Al Qaeda network, said in an Internet statement it had killed a Japanese contractor in Iraq and six of his Iraqi guards.

The statement said Al Sunna fighters had ambushed a convoy as it was leaving the Al Walid military base near Ramadi.

One of the wounded in the Arbil attack said the bomber, dressed as a policeman, had driven a red Chevrolet on to the field where around 160 policemen were exercising.

Elsewhere in the north, 15 people were killed in several attacks, including a Kurdish official and his three bodyguards.

In Baghdad, five policemen were killed as they went to help US forces fighting guerillas in the Al Bayaa district.

At the Baghdad International Airport, a suicide car bomber killed one person and wounded two others.—AFP