At least 60 die in attack at recruitment center in northern Iraq
The attacker , who blew himself up when he was among hundreds of recruits -- staged the assault at a checkpoint where people usually wait their turn to enter the center.
The explosion caused a fire at a fuel station nearby, police in Tikrit said, and most of those killed and wounded were young men who came to join police forces,.
Tikrit's general hospital was overwhelmed with wounded people and some of them had to be sent to hospitals in nearby towns of the Salaheddin province. Mosques urged Tirkit residents to donate blood for the wounded.
The center is located nearly 100 miles north of Baghdad in Tikrit, the hometown of late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, and the facility is in one of Hussein's former palaces
There has been no claim of responsibility but al Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni Muslim-dominated militant group, has frequently claimed responsibility for such attacks. Tikrit is largely a Sunni Muslim city.
Iraqi recruitment centers have frequently been targeted in warfare over the years.
On August 17, 48 were killed when suicide bombers attacked a military recruitment center in the Bab al-Moudham commercial area of central Baghdad.
The same center was attacked again in September and 12 people were killed.
The Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group for al Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni extremist groups, claimed responsibility for that bombing, authorities said.
U.S. troops have ended their combat mission in Iraq and have focused on training and advising. But they feel the violence that occasionally erupts.
On Saturday, three U.S. soldiers were killed, two in northern Iraq and another in the central part of the country.