(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-29 19:53

Akram Salman said it must have been an inside job because the suicide bomber apparently was able to penetrate heavy security surrounding the police camp without being searched.

He said police failed to stop the bomber when he changed course suddenly from the main road toward the recruits.

"The police are infiltrated. Many people join the police but they have affiliations with al-Qaida. These infiltrators made it easy for the bomber to attack us," he said. "There are two main checkpoints on the main road leading to the camp, it would be impossible for a man on a bicycle to pass without being properly searched."

"Al-Qaida has threatened us before and prevented us from joining the police," he said. "They slaughtered many policemen, burned their houses, killed their families and blew up their headquarters. Now, when the people have defeated al-Qaida and cooperated with the government, al-Qaida staged this operation to show their presence and to give a message that they are still in control."

Elsewhere in northern Iraq, a parked car bomb exploded near a market in Siniyah, just west of Beiji, killing at least four people and wounding 13, according to the media office of the Salahuddin provincial police department.

Police said the bomb apparently was targeting a police patrol but missed its target, killing four members of a family who were heading to the market to do their morning shopping.

Beiji, the site of a major oil refinery, is 155 miles north of Baghdad.

A new commander, Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling of the 1st Armored Division, assumed control of US forces in northern Iraq on Sunday, acknowledging that violence remains high in the area but expressing confidence that the military has al-Qaida on the run.

"The levels are still high in some of the northern provinces," he said. "But while they're still high ... they have been decreasing significantly."

"We are in, I believe, a pursuit operation with al-Qaida," he said. "They are targeting the concerned local citizens, the police stations and some of the gathering places of sheiks ... specifically to try and deter the Iraqi people from moving forward."

The two cars carrying the sheiks - seven Sunnis and three Shiites - were ambushed Sunday in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shaab, police officials said.

The sheiks were returning to Diyala province after attending a meeting with the Shiite-dominated government's adviser for tribal affairs to discuss coordinating efforts against al-Qaida in Iraq, police and a relative said.

Police found the bullet-riddled body of one of the Sunni sheiks, Mishaan Hilan, about 50 yards away from where the ambush took place, an officer said, adding that the victim was identified after his mobile phone was found on him.

A relative of one of the abducted Shiite sheiks blamed Sunni extremists and said the attackers picked a Shiite neighborhood to "create strife between Shiite and Sunni tribes that have united against al-Qaida in the area."

But, Jassim Zeidan al-Anbaqi said, "this will not happen."

   1 2   

   1 2