Cadets among 36 killed in Iraq blasts

Security forces are targeted

Iraqi security personnel secured the site of a twin bombing near the entrance to a police academy in Baghdad yesterday. (Hadi Mizban/Associated Press)

BAGHDAD - Bombers targeting Iraqi and US security forces cut a deadly swath across Iraq yesterday, killing as many as 36 people, including 15 police cadets slain at a police academy in Baghdad.

Also in the capital, an Iraqi army general escaped an assassination attempt, but the roadside bomb targeting him killed one of his bodyguards. The blast was intended for Major General Mudher Mawla, who is overseeing the transition of tens of thousands of mainly Sunni paramilitary fighters into the Iraqi security forces and other government entities.

The fighters, known as the Sons of Iraq, are credited with helping reduce violence nationwide. But they are frequent targets of insurgents, who consider them traitors for working alongside US and Iraqi security forces.

The day's killings pointed up the volatility in Iraq as it heads toward two milestones: provincial elections on Jan. 31, and the pullback of US combat troops from cities and towns by June 30. The attacks show the challenges awaiting Iraqi security forces when Americans draw down.

The withdrawal is a condition of the Status of Forces Agreement approved last Thursday by Iraq's Parliament, which also calls for all US forces leave Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011. President-elect Barack Obama said yesterday he hoped they could be out sooner.

"I believe that 16 months is the right time frame," Obama said as he unveiled his national security team, although he added that he would listen to the recommendations of military commanders.

In the Iraqi capital yesterday, twin blasts minutes apart struck the police academy in eastern Baghdad, one of them caused by a car bomb and the other by a young man wearing an explosive belt or vest.

Iraqi police said the blasts killed 16 people, including the suicide bomber. Iraqi officials said the victims were young recruits. Some hospital officials put the death toll at 20, but there was no confirmation of the number from police or US military officials.

In the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb targeting a patrol by US and Iraqi security forces blew up shortly before noon. US officials said nine Iraqis, including the bomber, were killed. Four American troops and two Iraqi national policemen were wounded, said a military statement.

Iraqi officials in Mosul put the death toll at 15.

Violence has dropped dramatically across Iraq in the past year, but bombings remain a daily threat.

The Iraqi death toll from bombings and other war-related violence for November was 339, compared with 278 in October, according to figures from the Health and Interior ministries. The number is far lower than November last year, when 608 Iraqis died in war-related violence.

The United Nations' Iraq envoy, Staffan de Mistura, predicted "spectacular attempts" by insurgents to disrupt the provincial elections and derail security gains made in recent months.

De Mistura made his comments at a news briefing Sunday, a day after a rocket slammed into Baghdad's fortified Green Zone near the UN compound.