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IRBIL, Iraq - A suicide attacker slipped into
line at a police recruitment center in this usually
tranquil northern Kurdish city and blew himself up
Wednesday, leaving the streets slick with blood in
the deadliest insurgent attack in more than two
months, police said. Sixty Iraqis were killed and
150 wounded.
The explosion, part of an escalation of violence
aimed at destabilizing the country's new democratic
government, left pieces of flesh spattered on the
outside walls. Nails and shards of metal were packed
in with the explosives to maximize casualties.
A Sunni militant group, Ansar al-Sunnah Army,
claimed responsibility, saying the attack was
revenge for Kurdish cooperation with U.S. forces.
Early today, two suicide car bombs targeting
separate police patrols in western Baghdad killed a
total of nine policemen, said police Maj. Mousa
Abdul Karim.
A short while later, a man carrying hidden
explosives set them off inside an Iraqi army
recruitment center in central Baghdad, killing at
least 11 people, a police official said on the
condition of anonymity.
Militants frequently target security forces and
recruits, leaving Iraq's government grappling with
how to stabilize the country.
Also Wednesday, a suicide car bomber attacked an
Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad. There were
conflicting accounts of the casualties. Police said
nine soldiers were killed and six wounded, along
with 10 civilians. The U.S. military said 15
soldiers were killed.
In Irbil, 215 miles north of Baghdad, some 250 job
seekers were waiting to be searched outside the
recruitment center when the bomb went off, police
Capt. Othman Aziz said. An Iraqi insurgent joined
the line and detonated explosives concealed on his
body, he said.
"Oh God, what did we do wrong?" Horras Mohammed Amin
screamed from his hospital bed, his face and leg
bloodied from the attack.
The 25-year-old was standing near the end of the
line when the blast threw him into the street. "I
wanted to find a job because it is very shameful for
a young man like me to take money from his father,"
he said.
The U.S. military put the toll at 60 dead and 150
wounded in the attack. Nearly 200 people have been
killed in insurgent violence across Iraq since the
new government was announced last week.
It was the deadliest attack in Iraq since Feb. 28,
when a suicide car bomber struck a crowd of police
and national guard recruits in Hillah, south of the
capital, killing 125 and wounding more than 140.
Ansar al-Sunnah, in its statement posted on a
militant Web site, claimed the attack was a car
bombing and said it was staged to punish Kurdish
security forces that have "bowed their heads to the
Crusaders and raised their spears against the
Muslims and fought alongside the Americans."
There was no bomb crater in the street, as there
normally would be after a car bombing.
Ansar al-Sunnah is believed to be a breakaway
faction of Ansar al-Islam, a Kurdish-led group with
links to al-Qaida.
Insurgents have stepped up their attacks since a new
Cabinet was approved last week.
Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari hoped to include
members of the Sunni minority, which dominated under
Saddam Hussein, in his government. But members of
his Shiite-dominated alliance have blocked
candidates with links to Saddam's government, which
brutally repressed Shiites and Kurds.
AP
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