8 Iraqis Trained by U.S. Killed

Guerrillas continued to deliver on threats against Iraqis who cooperate with U.S. occupation forces, killing at least eight young police recruits and wounding dozens of others Saturday in a midday bomb blast in front of police headquarters here.

The attackers triggered or planted an explosive device among a group of about 75 recruits -- many of them teenagers -- as they left a lecture hall about 11:30 a.m. to go to their posts on their third day on the job.

Local police said they suspected that the attack was carried out by the Fedayeen Saddam, a paramilitary force loyal to the former government. Many of the recruits had received threats at their homes in recent days, Sgt. Turki Mohammed Awad said. Several had responded by turning in their uniforms Saturday morning before the attack.

Those making the threats did not identify themselves or claim membership in any organization, Awad said.

The return of some minimal level of security has been among the most urgent tasks facing the U.S.-led occupation; much of the nation was essentially lawless in the first weeks after the rout of the Iraqi army.

Occupation officials say they have made steady progress in restoring some sense of order, but it is at best tenuous and often nonexistent. The rapid training and installation of a new 30,000-member Iraqi civil police force has been seen as a major element of the new security plan. Ramadi police officials said a class of about 500 local recruits had completed their initial training last week.

In the chaotic aftermath of Saturday’s huge explosion, a crowd of men and boys gathered at the scene and began chanting anti-American slogans.

Bright red pools of blood, stray black shoes and bits and pieces of uniforms littered the ground. Curious children tracked unwittingly through the blood, their flip-flops leaving smudged footprints along the concrete.

Some officers at the scene said they suspected that radical Islamists were behind the attack, setting off a shouting match with a man who identified himself only as Adel. “We didn’t do such a thing. Bush is responsible for it all,” he said. The confrontation fired up the crowd.

As a cameraman for the Arabic satellite television channel Al Jazeera panned across the group, their shouts rose and became more pointed. They faced the camera and shouted: “The Iraqi people will be like a sword on the neck of the Americans!”

The Al Jazeera man stood above the crowd, holding his camera in one hand and making hand signals to urge the crowd on with his other.

The victims were taken to the former Ramadi Saddam Hospital, where the emergency room staff rushed the wounded into wards throughout the facility. Family members poured into the emergency room as word of the attack spread.

They surrounded hospital staff and police, screaming for information and sometimes completely blocking halls to the passage of the wounded.

Even at the hospital, anti-American sentiment was stark. One distraught young man told a reporter that Americans should all be killed. He spit at the reporter’s feet, then left.

Awad, the police sergeant, said he suspected that several of those making the most commotion in the hospital were connected to the attack.

Hospital administrators said at least eight men died in the blast or soon thereafter. They said five to 10 more had life-threatening abdominal or head injuries. At least 20 other men were wounded.

U.S. Central Command released a statement saying that an investigation by 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment explosive ordnance specialists determined that the blast was caused by a device detonated by remote control.

Ramadi and a neighboring town, Fallouja, have been troublesome spots since U.S. forces arrived in the region west of Baghdad in April. The area is one of few in Iraq with a strong Sunni Muslim majority, and it was loyal to Saddam Hussein’s regime. Carjackings on the highway between the two cities are frequent, and U.S. ground troops in the region report persistent low-level attacks.

Assaults on Iraqi civilians began about 10 days ago with an explicit warning from a group that called itself the Moujahedeen Taifa al Mansoura, or Muslim Fighters of the Victorious Sect.

In a video given to Al Jazeera, the group threatened to assassinate any Iraqi who worked with the Americans.

Soon after, an electricity worker in Baghdad was shot in an execution-style hit and two other workers died in an attack on their vehicle. A telephone company employee has also been killed, and a translator has gone missing.

There have been countless attacks against physical infrastructure, such as power plants, that occupation authorities are trying to restore.

L. Paul Bremer III, the civilian head of the U.S.-led occupation authority, decried the attacks at a news conference Saturday in Baghdad.

“Those who are attacking Iraqi citizens, the services they need and the coalition which liberated them will lose. Iraqi citizens are growing in their confidence that Saddam Hussein and his regime have gone.... Those who refuse to embrace the new Iraq are clearly panicking. They are turning their sights on Iraqis themselves.

“Today they have killed innocent Iraqis with the same disdain they have shown for their own citizens for 35 years.”

Bremer said the increased frequency of the attacks against Iraqis and occupation troops in recent weeks did not lead him to conclude that opposition forces were growing more powerful or coordinated.

“Every evidence we have suggests that the attacks against the Iraqi people, against the infrastructure of Iraq and against the coalition are being conducted by small groups of desperate men,” he said. “They do not pose a strategic threat either to the Iraqi people or to the coalition. And we intend to deal with them forcefully.”

Approximately 24,000 new police officers already have been put to work nationwide at salaries of $20 a month, although almost none of them have weapons. Many lack even standard uniforms.

Last week, the police chief in Fallouja complained that the U.S. military had failed to provide promised equipment.

“We have no vehicles, no radios, hardly any weapons and ammunition,” said the chief, Riyad Abbas, sitting in his battered station and cooling himself with a handmade fan during yet another electricity blackout. “We cannot function as a police force without the necessary equipment. The Americans must keep their promises to us.”

Some U.S. soldiers have complained that the new police officers lack even a rudimentary understanding of their duties. Some have been said to abandon their posts when they got bored or too hot.

Times staff writers John Daniszewski in Baghdad and Patrick McDonnell in Fallouja contributed to this report.