(Reuters) -

Five car bombs, including several detonated by suicide attackers, and rockets hit a police headquarters in the Iraqi city of Mosul on Monday, killing at least 24 people, mostly policemen and soldiers, police and medical sources said.

Iraq is facing a surge in violence officials blame on al Qaeda's local wing and Sunni Islamist insurgents determined to drag the country into a sectarian civil war.


(Reporting by Baghdad newsroom; writing by Patrick Markey)