The death toll rose to seven from the suicide truck bombing targeting a police station in Iraqi northern city of Kirkuk on Monday, local police chief said.

A further 126 others were wounded when a suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden truck into a police station in Rahimawa district in Kirkuk and detonated it at about 10:45 a.m. (0645 GMT), Brigadier Burhan Wasif, police chief of Kirkuk City, 250 km north of Baghdad, told Xinhua by telephone.

"Policemen were among the casualties," he said, without providing a breakdown of how many were killed or injured.

Earlier, Wasif said at least six people were killed and more than 50 others wounded in the blast.

Violence continues in Baghdad despite the presence of tens of

thousands of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers across the capital in a major security crackdown aimed at curbing insurgency and sectarian

violence in the war-torn country.

Source: Xinhua