60 killed in Iraq suicide bombing
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The Iraqi people on Tuesday witnessed the most deadly attack during the past months when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a group of police recruits in the country's northern city of Tikrit, which left 60 killed and 150 wounded.
"The death toll was 60 and 150 others were wounded," a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The is the latest major attack after al-Qaida militants raided a Baghdad church on Oct. 31, 2010, killing about 50 Iraqi Christians.
"Many wounded people were in critical condition, mosques in Tikrit have urged local people to donate blood," the police source said, adding that many of them were taken to hospitals in nearby cities such as Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk because the capability of hospitals in Tikrit was limited.
Mustafa, a doctor in Tikrit hospital, told Xinhua that dozens of people were taken to the hospital and some of them were in critical condition.
"We tried our best to save the lives of the wounded," he said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the bloody strike, however, local analysts believe al-Qaida in Iraq was behind the attack since they had launched such kind of attacks before.
Last August in Baghdad, an Iraqi army recruitment center was also hit by a suicide bombing, which left nearly 50 killed and 120 others wounded. "The Islamic republic of Iraq," an umbrella group of al-Qaida, later admitted that it launched the attack.
Tikrit, a major Sunni area some 160 km north of Baghdad, is the capital city of Salahuddin province and home town of former President Saddam Hussein.
According to some local witnesses, most of the victims were poor young men who wanted to find a job. A witness said about 300 people were waiting to enter the recruitment site outside a checkpoint when the explosion happened.
One of the people who want to join the police told Xinhua that "where is security? Why the officials do not prevent the suicide bomber from entering the site?"
He added that he hold the police chief responsible because 50 young people lost their life in the attack.
Shortly after the powerful blast, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle condemned the attack and expressed his condolence to the victims, according to a western media report.
"After successfully forming a government, Iraq is on the way to democracy and social stability, the terrorist must not succeed in endangering this process," Westerwelle said in a statement.
Insurgents frequently attack Iraqi government officials and security members as part of attempts to reassert the insurgent's control in some areas where they've been limited in freedom of movement.
Violence and sporadic high-profile bomb attacks continue in the Iraqi cities despite the dramatic decrease of violence over the last three years.
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