IRAQ: 30 RECRUITS KILLED BY SUICIDE BOMBERIraq, Baghdad (al-Jazeera)-
At least 30 police recruits were killed and 40 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up into a police center in Rubia. Al-Quaeda in Iraq has already claimed responsibility for the attack in an internet statement:
"A lion in a martyrdom brigade of al-Qaida in Iraq carried out a heroic operation in Rabia with an explosive belt. He entered a centre of National Guard volunteers, shouted: 'There is no god but God', then exploded."
Even if the authenticity of the statement is not officially certified, the same web site has been commonly used for this purpose by the insurgents.
Mosul Police General Said al-Juburi further explained how the toll number had yet to be defined:
"An initial toll put the number of those killed at 25 and the number of those wounded at 35," he told the press.
The town of Rubia is situated 80km northwest of
Mosul, the third largest Iraqi city by population. The surrounding areas have recently been targeted by rebel fighters probably coming from the Syrian border.
US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld had just suggested yesterday during his visit to the Iraqi authorities that they prevent terrorists from entering the country by the northern borders.Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is suspected to be behind many of the recent attacks in the area of Mosul. Anyway, the Jordanian ally of Bin Laden remains one of the most wanted men.
In the meantime, three other people were killed and seventeen wounded by a car-bomb. According to the Interior Minister, a group of Iraqi civillians were drinking alcohol near the Tigris river in the capital. The explosive-laden car exploded in a Sunni Muslim district of Adhamiyah.
Faisal Khazali, the shaikh of the Khazali tribe, was shot dead by a group of armed men when driving his car in the al-Alam neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, also according to the Interior Ministry.
Meanwhile, according to the UK consolate, a vehicle from the British Embassy in Basra was hit by a
roadside bomb, which killed two English workers.al-JazeeraALSO IN BLOGGERNEWS
Il Romanaccio at 2:55 PM
