Suicide bomber kills 42 police recruits in Iraq

TIKRIT, Iraq, (Reuters) – A suicide bomber wearing a  vest filled with explosives attacked Iraqi police recruits today in former dictator Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit,  killing at least 42 and wounding over 100, officials said.
Ahmed Abdul-Jabbar, deputy governor of Salahuddin province,  said the attack took place outside a police recruiting centre  where Iraqi men were lining up hoping to get a job.
“Who else would it be but al Qaeda, who keep on slaughtering  us,” said Abdul-Jabbar. “They are the terrorists.”
Abdul-Jabbar put the death toll at 42. Raed Ibrahim, head  of the health department in the province, said 45 were killed  and more than 150 wounded, while Interior Ministry sources in  Baghdad said 50 people had died.
A police source in the city, 150 km (95 miles) north of  Baghdad, said the main hospital was overwhelmed. Mosques  broadcast appeals for residents to donate blood.
“The hospital theatre now is full of dead and wounded young  people. Ambulances are still evacuating casualties,” the police  source said at the hospital, asking not to be identified.
A police spokesman said that, at the time of the attack,  more than 300 people were standing in line with their documents,  hoping to get a $500-a-month job as a police trainee.
“There were many killed and wounded. The place was full of  dead and wounded guys,” he said.
Overall violence in Iraq has fallen sharply since the peak  in 2006/07 of the sectarian slaughter triggered after the 2003  U.S.-led invasion. But shootings and bombings remain a daily  occurrence.
Salahuddin province, home to Saddam’s family, continues to  suffer frequent attacks by suspected Sunni Islamist insurgents  opposed to the Shi’ite-led authorities in Baghdad. Tikrit is  primarily Sunni.