Suicide bomber kills 39 in Baghdad attack
A suicide bomber attacked recruits waiting to join the Baghdad police force today, killing at least 39 people and wounding 96.
The car bomb blast left a gaping ten foot crater outside the station at the end of Haifa street, a main street in the Iraqi capital that has been the scene recently of fierce clashes.
Nearby shops and buildings were badly damaged and a dozen cars parked nearby were completely wrecked.
Paramedics and residents picked up body parts scattered across the street and put them into boxes. Anguished men lifted charred bodies and lay them gently on stretchers. Helicopters circled.
A Health Ministry spokesman said the initial death toll stood at 39, with 86 wounded, but both figures were expected to rise.
An Interior Ministry official said a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed car next to a cafe by the police station where many would-be recruits had gone to escape the summer heat.
Angry crowds near the site of the blast denounced US forces and interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s government for failing to protect police recruiting centres.
“Such places were targeted before,” said Ali Abul-Amir, who was among those trying to join the force but had gone around the corner to buy a drink when the explosion went off.
“I blame Ayad Allawi’s government for what happened because they did not take the necessary security measures,” he said.
Angry residents also condemned President George Bush.
“Bush is a dog,” they chanted.
Attacks on Iraqi security forces and police officers – whom the militants denounce as “collaborators” – have left hundreds of people dead since insurgents began a 17 month campaign to expel US led forces and destabilise Allawi’s government.
Militants have specifically targeted recruiting centres to disrupt US backed efforts to build a strong Iraqi police force capable of taking over security in many towns and cities ahead of nationwide elections slated for January.
Earlier this month, a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb outside a police academy in the northern city of Kirkuk as hundreds of trainees and civilians were leaving for the day, killing at least 20 people and wounding 36.
In July, a car bomb exploded outside a police recruiting centre in the eastern city of Baqouba, killing at least 68 people. A month earlier, a 4X4 vehicle packed with artillery shells slammed into a crowd waiting to volunteer for the Iraqi military in Baghdad, killing 35.
In February, a suicide attacker targeted another army recruiting centre in Baghdad, killing 47. Days earlier 53 people were killed in a similar attack south of the capital.
Today’s bombing came two days after insurgents hammered central Baghdad with one of their most intense mortar and rocket barrages ever in the heart of the capital, heralding a day of attacks and killings that left at least 37 people dead.
