Car Bomber Kills 15 in Attack on Baghdad Police BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomber struck at the gates of Baghdad's police academy Sunday afternoon, as recruits were leaving the compound, punctuating weeks of relative calm here after a particularly violent January. The attack left 15 dead and 21 wounded, according to an official at the Interior Ministry, and several of the dead were police recruits, a common target for insurgents. Differing accountings of casualties often emerge in the aftermath of attacks, and the Associated Press reported a higher death toll - 20 killed and 28 wounded. The police academy, on the northeastern edge of the capital, is adjacent to the fortified home for many American advisers and support staff who oversee the State Department's training program for the Iraqi police. No Americans were harmed in the attack, officials said. Iraq had not seen a major attack since late January, when a car bomber struck near a funeral procession in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, killing 31 and wounding nearly 31. That bombing followed several other major attacks - including a series of coordinated explosions in late December that left more than 60 dead - that in sum resulted in a sharp uptick in violence in the immediate aftermath of the departure of American forces in December. According to statistics compiled by the United Nations, 500 people were killed in attacks in January, making it a deadlier month than any the previous year. But before Sunday's attack, February had been much calmer and was on pace to be one of the least violent months since the American invasion in 2003. The United Nations had counted 86 killed so far in February, before the deaths on Sunday. One witness on Sunday said he saw two policemen arguing near the gate, and that a vehicle detonated as other men approached. "I saw people lying on the ground, blood and flesh and burned vehicles," said Mohsen Ali, a policeman. Another man in the area of the attack, Ali Jabar Khedhir, said he was protected by a parked car but that his cousin suffered injuries to his hands and leg. "How did he cross all the checkpoints?" he asked, referring to the bomber. We are losing many innocent souls daily. Sunday's attack notwithstanding, the lull in violence in February has coincided with an easing of the political tensions that flared in December just as the American troops were leaving. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's government issued an arrest warrant for Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, Iraq's top Sunni politician, on charges that he directed his bodyguards to assassinate officials and set off car bombs. To escape arrest, Mr. Hashimi fled to the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north, where he remains. That episode, coupled with longstanding grievances held by Iraqiya, the largely-Sunni bloc of lawmakers, over how Mr. Maliki exercises power, touched off worries that the country was sliding back towards sectarian war. Iraqiya, which for a time had boycotted parliament and the cabinet, has begun participating in the government again, just as parliament is considering how to divide up a $100 billion budget.