Human bomb kills 35 would-be Iraq recruits

A man with explosives hidden under his clothes set them off while standing in a line of job applicants waiting outside a police and army recruitment centre in northern Iraq today, killing 30 people and wounding 35, police said.

Police first thought the powerful blast in Hawija, a small town 150 miles north of Baghdad, was caused by a car bomb, but police Maj. Sarhad Qadir later said they later found it was an attacker waiting in a line of about 150 recruits.

“I was standing near the centre and all of a sudden it turned into a scene of dead bodies and pools of blood,” said police Sgt. Khalaf Abbas. “Windows were blown out in nearby houses, leaving the street covered by glass.” He spoke in an interview from the chaotic scene over his cell phone.

Qadir said 30 people were killed and 35 were wounded, including about 15 who were in critical condition.

Like many other such recruitment centres in Iraq, Hawija’s is located in a building surrounded by cement walls topped with barbed wire in an effort to prevent attacks by car bombs.

At a time of high unemployment in Iraq, men often line up outside such centres early in the morning to apply for jobs.

Insurgents target such centres, and Iraqi security forces on patrol, in an effort to block a key goal of US forces: to one day be replaced by newly trained Iraqi soldiers and police.

Hawija is a small town with few facilities, so some of the casualties were taken by ambulance to hospitals in Kirkuk, a city 34 miles to the northeast.

In a similar attack in Baghdad a week ago, an insurgent with explosives strapped to his body joined a long line outside an army recruitment centre in central Baghdad and blew himself up. At least 13 people were killed and 20 wounded in the blast.