Car Bomb in Tikrit Kills At Least 8 Iraqi Policemen

BAGHDAD - In another attack targeting Iraqi security forces, a suicide car bomb destroyed a police minibus at a checkpoint in Saddam Hussein's hometown Friday, killing at least eight policemen, officials said.

The attack was part of a surge of violence that has killed at least 255 people -- many of them Iraqi soldiers and police -- since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his new government April 28, with seven Cabinet positions still undecided.

Those assaults included 73 people who died when suicide bombers with explosives strapped to their bodies set them off in lines of job applicants waiting outside two separate recruitment centers for security forces in Baghdad and the northern city of Irbil.

Iraq's new Cabinet held its first meeting Thursday. Al-Jaafari aide Laith Kuba said the seven vacant portfolios, including the key oil and defense ministries, would be filled by Saturday and parliament would be asked to vote on them Sunday.

In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, a silver Opel car packed with explosives -- and with a taxi sign on its roof -- destroyed the minibus at 8:30 a.m. Friday, said U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Brian Thomas.

At least eight policemen were killed, said police Lt. Col. Saad Abdul Hamid and police Maj. Hakim al-Azawi. They said seven people were wounded: a policeman, two National Guardsmen and four civilians.

Initial reports by police had mistakenly said the attack involved explosives hidden inside the minibus and set off by remote control in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad.