IRAQ : MASSACRE AT POLICE CENTER; SHIA CLERIC ASSASSINATEDAt least eleven people were killed on Saturday by a suicide bomber in a
police recruiting center in the Mansour district of Baghdad, said a spokesman from the Interior Ministry.
Apparently
the kamikaze was disguised as a policeman, this could have helped him entering the headquarters with ease. A US military statement desrcibes the scene,
"A terrorist reportedly walked into the crowd and detonated his vest, which was packed with ball bearings."
Walid Khalid, an al-Jazeera correspondent, said that 10 newly appointed police officers along with police commandos started their shifts at 9.45am and that is when the bomber blew himself up.
Medical sources at the al-Yarmuk hospital have confirmed
the death of eleven police officers and the wounding of 23 others.
Another source fron the Interior Ministry said that the recruits were asked to come on Saturday (which is normally a non-working day) in attempt to protect the volunteers.
Meanwhile a beloved
Shia cleric, Kamal al-Din al-Ghoureify, was assassinated close to his mosque as he was arriving. He represented the Ayat Allah Ali al -Sistani in the capital.
"It is a calamity for the neighbourhood, for Baghdad, for Muslims and for Shia," said Al-Ghoureify's weeping brother Abu Hussein.
al-Jazeera
Il Romanaccio at 12:47 PM