BAGHDAD — Sunni insurgents have carried out their single most lethal
strike ever against a military target in Iraq.
A suicide car bomber blew himself up in a crowd of police and military
recruits as they waited for a physical outside a clinic. At
least 125 people were killed in Hilla, a Shi'ite community about 100 kilometers
south of Baghdad, in the bloodiest single strike in the
insurgency war in Iraq.
Authorities said another 132 people were injured in a
blast so powerful that investigators could find virtually no trace of the
bomber's vehicle. They said the only remains of the bomber was a
pair of hands on the steering wheel.
The only Iraqi insurgency attack that was more deadly was when 181
people were killed in multiple suicide bombings in Karbala in March 2004.
The Hilla strike was said to have consisted of only one suicide bomber.
Later, police said several people were arrested in connection with the
suicide attack. They said most of the victims were police and military
recruits waiting for a physical examination as part of their application to
join civil service.
The suicide strike came one day after Iraq announced the capture of
Saddam Hussein's half-brother. Sabawi Ibrahim Al Hassan was described as a
leading financier and organizer of the Sunni insurgency and was based in
Syria. Syria was said to have arrested and transferred Al Hassan to Iraqi
authorities.
