BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber killed 52 people among a crowd of police recruits in Saddam Hussein’s hometown Tuesday, shattering a two-month lull in major attacks and spurring a call to keep the U.S. military in Iraq beyond 2011.
The suicide bomber joined hundreds of recruits waiting outside a police station in Tikrit to submit applications for 2,000 newly created jobs.
About 10 a.m., the bomber detonated his explosivespacked vest. A nearby car was peppered with shrapnel. In addition to the 52 dead, 150 people were wounded, authorities said.
“I saw wounded people running in my direction calling for help and asking me to take them to the hospital immediately,” said taxi driver Abdul-Hamid Mikhlaf. “I saw several bodies on the ground as the policemen started to shoot in the air.”
Loudspeakers from the city’s mosques implored people to donate blood for the wounded. A grenade that had not exploded was found near the scene.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki blamed the strike on terrorists.
“The frequency of these heinous crimes with the same style indicate a blemish on, or clear negligence by, the responsible authorities,” al-Maliki said. “We will follow up the matter with all seriousness in order to determine negligence ... and the cause of the occurrence of this painful tragedy.”
One recruit said the job applicants 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.
“I am still in shock.”
A statement posted on a militant website by the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, praised the bombing as a “suicide martyrdom” but stopped short of claiming responsibility. Tikrit, located 80 miles north of Baghdad, is the capital of Sunni-dominated Salahuddin province, and the city sheltered some of al-Qaida’s most fervent supporters after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam.
Local politicians blamed al-Qaida.
“This is evidence that the entire Iraqi nation is being targeted. It is a clear failure by the security forces, and I expect there will be more attacks,” said Falah al-Naqaeeb, a lawmaker from Salahuddin who has been nominated by the Sunni-dominated Iraqiya political coalition to be Iraq’s next defense minister.
Al-Naqaeeb said attacks likely will spike if U.S. forces leave Iraq at the end of the year.
“The Iraqi security forces need the expertise from the Americans,” he said. “They shouldn’t be in a hurry with the withdrawal. And the Iraqi government should reconsider the withdrawal date because our forces are not yet ready.”
The Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline is part of a security agreement between Baghdad and Washington from whichneither side has budged so far.
In other developments, British authorities have refused to publish notes that Tony Blair sent to President George W. Bush before the Iraq war, prompting a complaint Tuesday from the chief of a public inquiry into the conflict.
Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell, head of the civil service, turned down the Iraq Inquiry’s request for the communications between the then-British prime minister and Bush to be declassified and made public. The notes deal with extensive correspondence between Blair and Bush during the period leading up to the invasion.
Iraq Inquiry chairman John Chilcot said Tuesday that the inquiry was “disappointedthat the Cabinet secretary was not willing to accede to its request.” Information for this article wascontributed by Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Saad Abdul-Kadir, Sameer N. Yacoub and David Stringer of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 01/19/2011