QARAH TAPPAH (Iraq), Aug 26: A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of police recruits in northern Iraq on Tuesday killing 28 people, in an attack that showed that parts of Iraq have yet to see the security gains felt elsewhere.

The bombing took place in the town of Jalawla in the north of volatile Diyala province, just a day after Kurdish Peshmerga security forces withdrew from the town at the request of the central government in Baghdad.

The attack, which also wounded 45 people, was the biggest for weeks in Iraq, where overall levels of violence have dropped sharply in the last year. It came amid Iraqi efforts to conclude a security deal with the United States that would require US forces to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

“The suicide bombing of Jalawla is striking evidence that Iraqi security forces are unable to impose security on the area from which Peshmerga have just withdrawn,” said their commander, Brigadier-General Nadhim Najim Ahmed.—Agencies