The charred remains of a bus sit at the site of a suicide car bombing in Baquba, Iraq.
A suicide car bomb exploded outside a police recruiting centre in central Baquba today, killing 68 Iraqis.
The attack, which killed 21 people inside a passing bus, was the deadliest bombing in Iraq since the United States transferred sovereignty to an interim government June 28.
The bombing came amid an intense surge in violence: 35 insurgents and seven Iraqi police were killed in clashes south-east of Baghdad, a US soldier was killed in a bomb attack and a police officer was assassinated.
Iraqi officials have said they expected attacks to intensify as the country tries to edge toward democracy, and they worried a key national conference scheduled for Saturday will be a major target.
"The terrorists' goal is to hamper the police work, terrorise our citizens and show that the government is unable to protect the Iraqi people, and this will not happen," said Hamid al-Beyati, a deputy foreign minister.
The bombing in Baquba, a turbulent city 35 miles north-east of Baghdad, shattered the bustling heart of a commercial district filled with shops, fruit stands, government buildings and the police station at 10.13am local time.
The street was filled with charred vehicles, pieces of glass, twisted metal and abandoned shoes, all covered in blood and human remains. Dead bodies lay scattered about - in the middle of the road, under cars, up against nearby buildings. A white metal security gate outside a shop was stained red with blood.
"It's all civilian casualties at this stage," US army Captain. Marshall Jackson said.
Witnesses said the bomb targeted men waiting outside the al-Najda police station trying to sign up for the force.
"These were all innocent Iraqis, there were no Americans," on angry man shouted at the scene.
The blast killed 68 people and wounded 56 others, according to Saad al-Amili, a health ministry official.
The local hospital was overwhelmed with the casualties. Every bed was filled, forcing many of the injured to sit on the floor, amid pools of blood as they were treated by health workers. One injured man sitting against the wall, held his head in his hands and wept.
The bombing was the deadliest insurgent attack in Iraq since June 24, when coordinated attacks in north and central Iraq killed 89 people, including three US soldiers. On April 21, five suicide bombings near police stations and police academy in southern city of Basra killed 74 people and wounded 160 others. A coordinated attack on Shiite Muslim shrines in Karbala and Baghdad on March 2 killed at least 181.
In other violence, 35 insurgents and seven Iraqi soldiers were killed in early morning clashes in the city of Suwariyah, south-east of Baghdad, Polish Lieutenant Colonel Artur Domanski, a multinational force spokesman, said in a telephone interview.
Another 10 soldiers from the Iraqi security forces were wounded in the joint operation with US army special forces and Ukrainian troops, he said. No coalition troops were injured in the operation that also led to the capture of 40 insurgents, he said.
The Guardian
