More from Iraq Jihadist group Ansar al-Sunnah: What extremists are saying

Ansar al-Sunnah in Iraq issued a communiqué, Monday, October 30, 2006, claiming responsibility for a suicide operation targeting General Serhad, the director of the police in the jurisdiction of Kirkuk and surrounding areas, at a police administration building in Kirkuk. The group states that they planned the general’s assassination for approximately six months, citing his “declared war” on the Mujahideen and serving the Shi’ites and “Jewish supporters,” Massoud al-Barzani and Jalal al-Talabani, as cause. He was first targeted by the group in a roadside bombing operation between Kirkuk and Tikrit on September 29, 2006, but he survived. The group states: “We warned him that if he is not going to repent we are going to be after him, but these kinds of people do not repent”.

The group found that a suicide bombing would be the only way to ensure General Serhad’s death so they dispatched one of their members for the operation. The bomber detonated his explosive belt at the general’s office in a police administration building, during a meeting. The message indicates that those officers inside the meeting and most of the people present in the adjacent hall were killed. Ansar al-Sunnah then addresses the “apostates,” warning: “Repent to live in peace, you and your people, and we will not touch any of you with harm; otherwise, we still have many arrows which will not miss you, Allah willing”.

According to media reports, the suicide bomber, dressed in a police officer uniform, detonated his explosives inside a police headquarters in Kirkuk today, killing two policemen and a three-year-old girl, injuring nineteen people.