19 die as suicide bomber strikes at police academy

Published on Monday 20 February 2012 01:19

A SUICIDE car bomber killed 19 police officers and cadets yesterday in an attack outside a Baghdad police academy.

The car exploded as it careered into a crowd of cadets whom police had just escorted out of the compound and were standing in the street outside, police working at the academy said.

Police and hospital sources said 14 cadets and five police were killed, and 26 people were wounded. All except two of the wounded were police or cadets.

The attack is the deadliest since 27 January, when a suicide bomber struck near a Shiite funeral procession in Baghdad, killing at least 31 and wounding 60. It breaks a short period of relative calm that accompanied an easing in the political climate.

Tensions rose last Thursday, however, when a panel of judges detailed 150 attacks they said were carried out by death squads under the command of Sunni vice president Tareq al-Hashemi.

Prime minister Nuri al-Maliki sought Hashemi’s arrest in December, sparking the crisis.