Baghdad, Feb. 23 (Reuters): US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew to Iraq today to gauge security risks ahead of a handover of power to Iraqis and to weigh an insurgency highlighted by a suicide bombing that killed 13 Iraqi policemen.

Rumsfeld, making his fourth visit to Iraq since last year’s US-led invasion, was greeted at Baghdad airport by US administrator Paul Bremer. Protected by tight security, he met senior American officers leading more than 100,000 troops in Iraq.

Rumsfeld is assessing whether Iraqi police and security forces will be able to take over more security responsibilities from US soldiers after a handover of power to Iraqis on June 30. The carnage in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk in the early hours today underlined the problems they face.

A suicide bomber rammed a car into a police station in the city of Kirkuk, killing 13 policemen and wounding 51 people, police Lieutenant Salam Zangana said. “He took us by surprise. We didn’t even manage to fire a single bullet at the bomber,” said policeman Saman Ali.

Pools of blood covered patches of snow after the bomber drove his car into the gate of the unfortified police station. “Parts of the suicide bomber, his legs and hands, were scattered inside the police station,” said Amjad Reda, a policemen slightly wounded in the attack.

Armed only with AK-47 assault rifles, Iraqi police often complain that American forces do not provide them with enough protection against suicide bombers targeting their bases. Guerrillas have killed more than 300 policemen for what they see as cooperating with American occupation troops.

Speaking to reporters with Rumsfeld, the chief spokesman for the US military, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, said: “It is clear that the Iraqi security forces are not capable of taking over the security of this country (now).”

The latest bloodshed erupted at a delicate time when Iraq’s Kurds are pressing for greater autonomy and competing for influence with other sects and ethnic groups ahead of the US handover of power. Kurdish demands for more influence in Kirkuk have angered Arabs and Turkmens in the city.

The United States is struggling to quell an insurgency amid rising ethnic tension. US-led administrators have also faced Shia demands for elections before the handover of power but the UN has said early elections are not feasible. Bremer said today he believed Iraq’s governing council would approve by a February 28 deadline an interim constitution.

Rumsfeld said in Kuwait guerrillas from Osama bin Laden’s al Qaida network were among insurgents intent on sparking a civil war in Iraq. Rumsfeld flew in from Kuwait on a C-130 transport plane that made a rapid descent as it landed at Baghdad airport, a manoeuvre designed to confuse any attack by shoulder-fired missiles.