50 IRAQIS KILLED IN SUICIDE BOMBING AS THEY QUEUE TO BECOME POLICE OFFICERS

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:14 PM on 18th January 2011

A suicide bomber killed 50 people today as he targeted a crowd waiting to apply for jobs with the Iraq police force.

More than 100 were also wounded in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, the home town of former leader Saddam Hussein.

The assassin discreetly joined the queue of 300 would-be recruits outside a police station before igniting his device.


Bloody scene: Policemen clear the area where the suicide bomber struck today in Tikrit

The attack starkly displayed the Iraqi forces' failure to plug even the most obvious holes in their security as the U.S. military prepares to withdraw from Iraq at the end of the year.

One recruit who survived the blast said the jobseekers were frisked before they entered the station's yard.

'We were waiting in the line to enter the police station yard after being searched when a powerful explosion threw me to the ground,' said Quteiba Muhsin, whose legs were fractured in the blast. 'I saw the dead bodies of two friends who were in the line.'


Victims: Men injured by the bomb attack receive rudimentary medical treatment in a hospital in Tikrit

Loudspeakers from the city's mosques were calling on people to donate blood for the wounded.

Police put the death toll at 45, with 140 wounded. Dr. Anas Abdul-Khaliq of Tikrit hospital confirmed the casualty figures.

Tikrit is the capital of Sunni-dominated Salahuddin province, and the city sheltered some of al-Qaida's most fervent support after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam.

Councillor Abdullah Jabara accused al-Qaida for the attack. 'The aim of this terrorist attack is to shake the security in the province and to bring back instability to Tikrit,' he said.

Jabara said insurgents successfully exploited what he called 'inefficiencies' and 'breaches' in security measures, calling it 'an indication that the terrorists are still on the job and all security forces should be on high alert all the time'.

One policeman said at least two of the dead were police officers. A second police official said a grenade that had not exploded was found near the scene.

The recruits were applying for some of the 2,000 new police jobs that Iraq's Interior Ministry recently approved for Salahuddin. They were waiting for interviews and medical checks.

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