Islamic State attack on Iraq police station kills three

Baghdad: An attack carried out by the Islamic State group on a police station in the Iraqi city of Samarra has left three members of the force dead, officers said today.

According to security officials from Salaheddin province, in which Samarra is located, a group of four gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed Mutawakil police station in Samarra late yesterday.

They holed themselves up in the police station and were subsequently besieged by Iraqi security forces, leading to clashes that lasted several hours.

"The exchange of fire started around 9:00 pm (local time) and lasted way past midnight," a Samarra police colonel told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The four suicide bombers who attacked the police station were all killed," the colonel said.

"Three members of the police were also killed, including a lieutenant colonel, and four wounded."

An official from Salaheddin province said the curfew that was imposed late yesterday on Samarra, a city 110 kilometres north of Baghdad, was lifted early today.

The attack, similar to one carried out in late November 2016, was claimed by IS via its propaganda agency Amaq.

Samarra is home to a major Iraqi security headquarters and to an important Shiite shrine where a 2006 bombing touched off two years of sectarian bloodletting.