A car bomb exploded outside a police academy south of Baghdad on Wednesday during a graduation ceremony, killing at least 20 people, a police official said.
The bomb exploded outside a gate of the academy in Hillah, about 95km south of Baghdad, said police Captain Hady Hatef.
Twenty people were killed and an unspecified number were injured, he said. No other details were immediately available.
That was the latest in a string of attacks against Iraqi police and security forces ahead of January 30 elections that insurgents are trying to disrupt.
The number of Iraqi police officers killed in the last four months of 2004 was 1 300 before the latest blast, according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry figures released on Wednesday.
The Iraqi police and security troops represent a soft target for the insurgents because of their poor training and equipment compared with that of the United States-led coalition forces. The militants see Iraqi soldiers as collaborators with the American occupiers.
Wednesday’s violence brought the death toll in the last four days to more than 90, mostly members of the Iraqi security forces. Despite the bloody insurgency, which US troops and Iraqi security forces have been helpless to prevent, American and Iraqi leaders insist the January 30 vote will go forward. — Sapa-AP