January 7, 2006	Saturday	Zilhaj 6, 1426

RAMADI (Iraq): The American commanders watched with disbelief as the lines formed. For so long, they had tried with little success to get Sunnis in this volatile western city to participate in Iraq’s new government institutions, particularly its security forces. But after months of cajoling and high-level negotiations with tribal leaders, they finally began seeing progress this week: young men were queuing up by the hundreds, ready to join Ramadi’s police force.

On Thursday morning, the recruits streamed into the grounds of an abandoned glass factory where applications were being processed. They went through background checks, physical exams and tests of their reading skills.

Some applicants took fitness tests outdoors, running across the dusty factory grounds and doing sit-ups on thin foam mattresses as US soldiers watched. Inside, other men filled out printed forms, scribbling away intently. Many wore their finest clothes.

Then, just after 9am, a suicide bomber standing in the crowd outside the factory gates detonated a vest packed with explosives and ball bearings.

The US military said at least 30 people were killed in the blast, but Iraqi hospital officials put the death toll at 70. Among the dead were two US troops and three Iraqi soldiers.

US Army Col. John L. Gronski said the blast was an attempt by guerillas to discourage people from joining the US-backed security forces. Hours after the explosion, though, several Ramadi men struck a note of defiance, returning to finish their applications even as ambulances were still carrying away victims.

“We came here to take care of the security, because if we don’t do it, who else will?” Majid Said, 30, said after the explosion. He had come with a large group of cousins to sign up. “We came here to volunteer, especially to get rid of these people.”

Although the attack was a setback, American commanders said they hoped it would galvanize local sentiments against the resistance and drive a wedge between residents and more hard-core followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi’s group Al Qaeda in Iraq, which they believed was behind the bombing.

“This is Al Qaeda in Iraq, certainly not local insurgents,” Gronski said after a meeting with the governor of Al Anbar province, of which Ramadi is the capital. “The key message is that the young men of Anbar province who were here today were not deterred by the attacks.”

Adnan Salih, 32, was among the recruits who came early on Thursday and stayed through the day.

“If I had wanted to leave, I would have left already,” Salih said after the explosion. He also had brought friends and relatives. “Some of my friends didn’t want to come, but I convinced them.”

“Ramadi is probably the decisive city in the province,” said Maj. Robert Rice of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, who oversees the Iraqi police programme in Al Anbar.

High-ranking US military officials met recently with tribal leaders to discuss the creation of a local police force. Prominent sheiks in the city agreed to endorse police recruitment in the city, and in the last week, mosques issued public announcements encouraging residents to sign up for the security forces. Close to 1,300 recruits signed up in three days this week.

After visiting wounded Iraqis on the American base, Al Anbar Governor Mamoun Sami Alwani said he did not think the incident would derail the recruitment effort.

“Regardless of this criminal act, the sons of Al Anbar still wanted to come and continue volunteering,” he said. “This won’t affect the process because people are willing and wanting this to happen. The sons of Al Anbar want to build the province with their own hands.”—Dawn/Los Angeles Times News Service