A powerful explosion killed several Iraqi police and recruits Saturday as they walked out of a training facility in western Iraq, witnesses and police officials said. The recruits had just finished a class about highway patrols in the one-story building, located in the tense town of Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad. Witnesses told The Associated Press that the explosion was apparently caused by a powerful roadside bomb. As many as six people, most of them police recruits, were believed killed, and many others injured, witnesses said. At least three U.S. helicopters hovered over the scene hours after the blast and military vehicles roamed the city. U.S. soldiers at the site refused to comment and American military officials in Baghdad said they had no information. “The explosion was so loud it was heard all over the city,” Iraqi police Lt. Hamed Ali said. Ramadi, one of several Sunni-majority towns along the Euphrates River, was a stronghold of support for Saddam Hussein, and has been the site of frequent attacks that have killed Americans as well as Iraqis. Insurgents frequently target police stations and others deemed to be cooperating with the U.S.-led occupation. The explosion happened a day after the release of a new audiotape purportedly from Saddam Hussein that warned of new “trouble for the infidel invaders.” Full Story
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