20 killed in suicide attack on police recruits in Baghdad

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber detonated his car Sunday as a group of police recruits left their academy in Baghdad, killing 20 in the latest strike on security officials. The attack was blamed on political feuding that is roiling Iraq and al- Qaeda terrorists.

Police said the suicide bomber was waiting on the street outside the fortified academy near the Interior Ministry in an eastern neighborhood in the Iraqi capital. As the crowd of recruits exited the compound’s security barriers about 1 p. m. and walked into the road, police said, the bomber drove toward them and blew up his car.

“We heard a big explosion, and the windows of the room shattered,” said Haider Mohammed, 44, an employee in the nearby Police Sports Club, about 100 yards from the academy’s gate. He described a horrific scene of burning cars and wounded people on the ground.

“Everybody here knows the time when the recruits come and go from the academy,” Mohammed said.

Five policemen were among the dead; the rest were recruits. Twenty- eight recruits and policemen were wounded. Officials at three hospitals confirmed the casualties. All spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Shiite lawmaker Hakim al- Zamili, who sits on the parliament’s security and defense committee, said the academy’s officials should have been more careful about letting the recruits go at the same time every day. He said that was a pattern that insurgents easily noted.

“This was negligence by security officials in charge of academy security,” al- Zamili said.

Al- Zamili blamed al- Qaeda for launching the attack but raised the possibility that it aimed to ramp up bitterness among Iraqis exasperated with political fighting that has consumed the government for weeks.

“The political feuds are contributing to such security violations because they are demoralizing the security members,” he said.

“The people were expecting such attacks because of the current tense political atmosphere,” said Ali Rahim, 40, a government employee. “Those poor recruits were looking to send the salary to their families, and now they are going to be sent as dead bodies to these families.”