Suicide Bomber Kills 68 In Iraq

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said the bombing was "once again an attempt by murderers to deny the Iraqi people their dream of a peaceful country that rests on a solid foundation of freedom." Speaking to reporters in Cairo, he added, "We have to condemn it; we have to fight it. We must not let these kinds of tragic incidents deter us from our goal."

The explosion tore through a street lined with people, vehicles and small buildings. Television footage showed men in shredded clothes screaming and running from the scene, a wounded man covered in blood sitting stunned amid burning wreckage and burned bodies being carried into ambulances.

The video also captured the hulks of several charred or flaming vehicles, including the white Korean-made minibus of the suicide bomber and a larger passenger bus that happened to be passing the police station.

Baqubah, located in the heartland of Sunni Muslim resistance to the U.S. presence in Iraq, has been the scene of many attacks by Iraqis against occupation forces and their Iraqi allies. But officials and witnesses said they believed that foreign or religious extremists were behind Wednesday's blast.

Police said the same station had been bombed six months ago. They said that before Wednesday's blast, they had tried to persuade applicants to wait on a side road away from the building as a safeguard, but that the eager men did not heed them and formed a large crowd in the open street.

"We told the volunteers not to stand directly in the street until we called them. We wanted to avoid such a thing happening again," said Lt. Sattar Abdullah of the Baqubah police patrol administration. He said he believed saboteurs from Iran were responsible for the attack, but no group has claimed responsibility for it.

Mohammed Saleh, whose apartment next to the station was badly burned, said the applicants were "standing around, buying cigarettes and eating sandwiches, when suddenly the bomb exploded." He noted that two shops destroyed in the blast had been selling alcohol, and he speculated that the attackers were Islamic fundamentalists who wanted to send a message against drinking as well as cooperating with the new Iraqi government.

At Baqubah General Hospital, where most of the injured were taken, a number of wounded applicants expressed both fury at the attackers and anger at the police for not giving them a safer place to wait.

"This strengthens my intention to apply again," said Uday Basim Mohammed, 26, who had just stepped out of the line of applicants to lock his car when the bomb detonated and sprayed him with shrapnel. "I came to protect my country, and I will not let these terrorists do these things again." He lay in a hospital bed, his head, a leg and a hand wrapped in bandages.

"These terrorists do not want Iraqis to live peacefully," he said. "They want to create chaos."

But another injured applicant, Qahtan Rageb, 26, said he would not return to apply for police work, even though he is poor and there are few other jobs available. "I want to live. I don't want to die," he said. "I will apply when the country is safe and people can live and work in peace."

Nearby, a third injured man, Mohammed Hussain, 23, lay with one eye covered in thick gauze.

"There were too many of us outside. They should have taken us to another place or at least divided us into smaller groups," he complained. "Now look at what has happened to me. I'm afraid I will never see again. Whoever did this is neither a patriot nor a Muslim."

Constable reported from Baghdad, Sebti from Baqubah.