At least five people were killed and some 25 others injured in a suicide car bomb attack in the southern Iraqi port of Basra on Monday, a local police source said.

Security personnel inspect the site of a bomb attack in Basra, 550 km (342 miles) south of Baghdad, June 13, 2011. A suicide bomber blew up an explosives-filled vehicle at the entrance to a police unit in Iraq's southern oil port of Basra on Monday, killing five people and wounding 25, police and officials said. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
The attack took place in the morning when a suicide bomber blew up an explosive-laden car into the entrance of a police headquarters in al-Ashar district in central Basra and blew it up, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Iraqi security forces guarding a checkpoint outside the compound opened fire on the attacker forcing him to detonate his vehicle, the source said.

The toll could rise as many ambulances, police and civilian vehicles evacuated the victims to the city hospitals, the source added.

Violence and sporadic high-profile attacks are still common in Iraq underlining the challenges that the Iraqi security forces are facing as they struggle to restore stability and normalcy in Iraqi cities about seven months before the departure of all American forces by the end of 2011. 

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet