Suicide car bomber hits Baghdad police academy, kills 19 and wounds 26

Security forces prepare to tow away a destroyed car after a car bomb attack outside the fortified academy near the Interior Ministry headquarters in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012. A suicide bomber detonated his car as a group of police recruits left their academy in Baghdad, killing and wounding scores of people, police said. (AP Photo)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed 19 police officers and cadets Sunday in an attack on a crowd outside a Baghdad police academy, police and hospital sources said.

The car exploded as it careered into a crowd of cadets whom police had just escorted out of the compound and were standing in the street outside, police working at the academy said.

Police and hospital sources said 14 cadets and five police were killed, and 26 people were wounded. All except two of the wounded were police or cadets.

"I can see body parts scattered on the ground and boots and berets covered with blood. Many cars were set ablaze," said a policeman working at the academy on Palestine Street in northeastern Baghdad.

The attack is the deadliest since January 27, when a suicide bomber set off an explosive-laden vehicle near a Shi'ite funeral procession in Baghdad, killing at least 31 and wounding 60.

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