Al queda Suicide Bomber Kills Over 40 Police Recruits In Central Iraq

From The Long War Journal:

9:55 AM (13 hours ago)Al Qaeda suicide bomber kills over 40 police recruits in central Iraqfrom The Long War Journal An al Qaeda suicide bomber killed 45 Iraqis as they were attempting to join the police in the central town of Tikrit. Today's attack is the first major al Qaeda suicide bombing in Iraq this year.




The suicide bomber detonated his vest packed with explosives as Iraqis lined up outside a police recruitment center in Saddam Hussein's home town. Ahmed Abdul Jabbar, the deputy governor of Salahuddin province, said 42 Iraqis were killed, while Iraq's interior ministry put the number killed at 50.



While no group has claimed the attack, Jabbar put the blame squarely on al Qaeda in Iraq.



"Who else would it be but al Qaeda, who keep on slaughtering us," Jabbar told Reuters. "They are the terrorists."



Al Qaeda in Iraq, under the guise of the Islamic State of Iraq, and Ansar al Sunnah (or Ansar al Islam) are the two groups that have carried out suicide attacks in Iraq.



Al Qaeda's last two major suicide attacks have targeted the Iraqi police. In the last suicide attack, on Dec. 29, 2010, an al Qaeda suicide assault team targeted and killed a counterterrorism police chief in Mosul who had recently captured and killed top al Qaeda leaders in the northern city.



Background on the state of al Qaeda in Iraq



Al Qaeda in Iraq has suffered significant blows to its leadership at the hands of the Iraqi security forces in the past year [see LWJ report, Al Qaeda in Iraq is 'broken,' cut off from leaders in Pakistan, says top US general, for a list of senior leaders killed and captured up until June 2010]. But while unable to hold territory, the terror group has been able to reorganize and launch high-profile terror attacks against the Iraqi security forces and government institutions. The attacks have been less frequent over the past two years, however, and have failed to threaten the Iraqi state.



The recent attacks are being directed by Nasser al Din Allah Abu Suleiman, al Qaeda's new 'war minister' for Iraq. Suleiman was appointed in May after his predecessor, Abu Ayyub al Masri, was killed in a US raid along with Abu Omar al Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq. Also in May, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi al Hussieni al Qurshi was named the new emir of the Islamic State of Iraq, and Abu Abdullah al Hussieni al Qurshi, was named the deputy emir. [For more information on the identities of al Qaeda's top two leaders, see LWJ report, Al Qaeda in Iraq's security minister captured in Anbar.]




Al Qaeda in Iraq is supported primarily through its networks in eastern Syria. The al Qaeda ratlines, which move foreign fighters, money, and weapons, pass from eastern Syria through the northwestern Iraqi cities of Sinjar and Rabiah into Mosul.



In 2009, al Qaeda's central leadership based in Pakistan reportedly sent a senior ideologue to Syria to partner with a dangerous operative who ran the network that funnels foreign fighters, cash, and weapons into western Iraq. Sheikh Issa al Masri is thought to have left Pakistan's tribal agency of North Waziristan and entered Syria in June 2009, where he paired up with Abu Khalaf, a senior al Qaeda operative who had been instrumental in reviving al Qaeda in Iraq's network in eastern Syria and directing terror operations in Iraq, a US intelligence official told The Long War Journal.



Although the US killed Abu Khalaf during a Jan. 22, 2010 raid in the northern city of Mosul, Sheikh Issa is alive and is believed to be based in Damascus and is protected by the Mukhabarat, Syria's secret intelligence service.