A suicide bomber detonated an oil tanker rigged with explosives at a police station north of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing seven policemen, while attacks elsewhere left eight dead, officials said.

A suicide bomber detonated an oil tanker rigged with explosives at a police station north of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing seven policemen, while attacks elsewhere left eight dead, officials said.

In Wednesday's deadliest attack, a suicide bomber drove an explosives-rigged tanker in front of police station in Muqdadiyah, in restive Diyala province, and detonated it at the entrance, police and a doctor said.

The attack killed seven people and wounded 11 others, all police, and caused massive damage to the station.

The bombing is the latest in a string of attacks targeting police in the past week in Kirkuk, Salaheddin and Diyala provinces.

Elsewhere in Iraq, attacks on police killed three others.

In Salaheddin province, north of Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed a policeman and wounded two others, while a gun attack left a policeman dead in the province's north.

In Baghdad, a policeman was shot dead while on patrol in the city of Sadr, while two roadside bombs in the capital left three others dead, including an anti-Qaeda militiaman.

Iraq is mired in its worst violence since 2008, with more than 5,500 people killed this year.