MOSUL, Iraq, Feb 7 (AFP) - Drawn into a trap as they queue for wages or attacked as they wait to enlist, Iraqi security forces are bearing the brunt of insurgent attacks.
The 12 police killed Monday by a suicide bomber in Mosul and 11 men cut down by a car bomber in Baquba as they waited to enlist was the worst day for the security services since Iraq's landmark January 30 election.
And with the United States determined to hand more security responsibility to Iraqi forces so it can move closer to a withdrawal, the pressure is set to mount in coming weeks and months.
In the Sunni insurgent bastion of Mosul, the bomber gathered police waiting for their wages around him to talk about money and then set off his explosive belt, according to police colonel Saad Aziz.
In Baquba, a car bomber headed full speed at a group waiting to enlist outside the Diyala province police headquarters.
Both attacks were claimed by militants loyal to Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in an internet statement.
Scores of police and Iraqi soldiers have been killed since the election.
One militant group released a video at the weekend of the shooting of seven soldiers abducted in an ambush last week. Twelve soldiers were herded off a minibus near the northern city of Kirkuk last week and shot. Off-duty police are regularly shot dead as they shop.
But despite the almost daily slaughter, the authorities still say there is still a steady stream of willing candidates.
"We have had absolutely no problem recruiting," said Melvin Goudie, who has been seconded from the British defence ministry to run the Baghdad police academy.
About 2,000 new police graduate each month from the academy, a virtual fortress in eastern Baghdad which faces regular mortar attacks.
Similar smaller academies are run in the provincial cities of Basra, Mosul, Arbil, Ramadi and Suleimaniyah.
The monthly wage of about 180 dollars, way above the national average tempts many in a country where unemployment is estimated at between 30 and 50 percent of the working population.
President George W. Bush last week spoke of a new phase in the US operation in Iraq in which "more capable Iraqi security forces" would be trained to ease the way for a US troop withdrawal.
In the case of the police, the problem is not just training but also finding forces who are free of insurgent links.
Three-quarters of the police in Fallujah, which was retaken from insurgents last November, are to lose their jobs in a purge of rebel sympathisers, an Iraqi commander said Saturday.
General Medhi Hashem told AFP the force had about 2,000 officers but only 500 would be kept on. "They will be picked for their integrity and on condition they never took part in terrorist operations," he said.
The US military and Iraqi authorities have also had to rebuild the police force in Samarra, another trouble spot. A former Samarra police chief was recently killed in Baghdad by security forces, according to the US military.
US generals say however that the Iraqi security forces are improving each month.

02/07/2005 13:00 GMT - AFP