There was a suicide bombing in Irbil, Iraq today which is the city located a few kilometers from where the Korean Zaytun Division is located:

According to the Associated Press (AP), a suicide truck bomb struck at 8 a.m. on Wednesday in Irbil, the northern Iraqi city where Korea’s Zaytun troops are stationed.

At least 19 local police and civilians were killed in the blast and another 80 were wounded, the AP report said. Officials from the Zaytun base said no Koreans were injured.

The explosion occurred outside the Interior Ministry of the local Kurdish government, which is about six or seven kilometers from the Zaytun base.

According to witnesses, a truck disguised as carrying cleaning products exploded as it drove by the building, seriously damaging the building and scattering wreckage as far as 100m.

The Kurdish government blamed the attack on Ansar al-Islam, an al-Qaida-linked Sunni Islamist group.

Apparently the Kurdish government had known an attack was imminent due to arrests made last week of a terrorist cell that admitted that they received training in Iran.  Anyone surprised?