In another attack targeting Iraqi security forces, a suicide car bomb destroyed a police minibus at a checkpoint in former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's hometown yesterday, killing at least eight policemen, officials said.
The attack was part of a surge of violence that has killed at least 255 people -- many of them Iraqi soldiers and police -- since Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his new government on April 28, with seven Cabinet positions still undecided.
Iraq's new Cabinet held its first meeting on Thursday. Al-Jaafari aide Laith Kuba said the seven vacant portfolios, including the key oil and defense ministries, would be filled by today and parliament would be asked to vote on them tomorrow.
In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, a silver Opel packed with explosives -- and with a taxi sign on its roof -- destroyed the minibus at 8:30am yesterday, said US army 1st Sergeant Brian Thomas and Iraqi National Guard Major Salman Abdul Wahid.
At least eight policemen were killed, said police Lieutenant Colonel Saad Abdul Hamid and police Major Hakim al-Azawi.
They said that seven people were wounded: a policeman, two National Guardsmen and four civilians.
Initial reports by police had mistakenly said the attack involved explosives hidden inside the minibus and set off by remote control in Tikrit, which is 130km north of Baghdad.
In Thursday's deadliest attack, an insurgent used a suicide bomber belt to walk up to an army recruitment center in Baghdad which, like many others, have been turned into small fortresses of concrete blast walls and razor wire to prevent car bombings.
At al-Yarmouk Hospital, the morgue was overflowing with mangled bodies after the blast. One man lay screaming on his bed -- both his legs had been blown off. Pools of blood covered the floor.
At least 13 people were killed and 20 wounded in the blast, Lieutenant Salam Wahab said at the recruitment center.
At least nine policemen were killed in two attacks in western Baghdad on Thursday.
The bodies of at least 12 people who had been shot and killed were also found buried at a garbage dump in Baghdad yesterday, Iraqi officials said.
Some of the victims were blindfolded and had been shot in the head execution style, said Bassim al-Maslokhi, a soldier who was guarding the area during the recovery at the site on the outskirts of northeastern Baghdad.
There were conflicting accounts of the number of bodies found. Al-Maslokhi said 14 bodies were found. However, Kadhim al-Itabi, a local police chief, put the number at 12. Al-Itabi confirmed they had been shot.
Master Sergeant Greg Kaufman, a US military spokesman, confirmed an incident in the area, but would not provide details, referring queries to Iraqi authorities.
Police were called to the scene by impoverished residents who found some of the bodies while searching through the dump for scrap metal and other items to sell, al-Maslokhi said.
Police had found the victims, thought to be Iraqis, buried in shallow graves at the dump, al-Maslokhi said.
He added that they seemed to have been killed recently.
He said police were still digging at the site to see if more bodies could be found.
Insurgents often target Iraqi security forces, which are being recruited and trained by the US-led coalition as part of its exit strategy in Iraq. An estimated 1,800 Iraqi soldiers and police officers were killed between June last year and April 27 this year, the latest date for which statistics were available, according to figures compiled by the Brookings Institution in Washington.
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