Car bomb explodes near police station south of Baghdad where 24 killed one day earlier

A car bomb exploded on Friday near a police station south of Baghdad where, a day earlier, a suicide attacker killed 24 policemen. No casualties were immediately reported as a result of the explosion, just 50 meters (165 feet) from the bombing on Thursday morning that also wounded 72 people, AFP reported.

A second explosives-packed vehicle was also found near the blast site in Hilla, 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad, but security forces defused it, according to a police lieutenant.

Thursday's bombing was the deadliest to hit Iraq in more than a month as security chiefs braced for revenge attacks by Al-Qaeda following the death of Osama bin Laden in a US commando raid in Pakistan on Sunday.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but security forces nationwide began tightening security in the wake of the bombing.

Meanwhile, tribal chief Shahadha Hamad Ahmed was gunned down inside his son's home in the main northern city of Mosul on Friday, police First Lieutenant Saud al-Badrani said.