Suicide bomber targets Iraqi army recruits, kills 39
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 39 recruits and soldiers were killed and 57 wounded on Tuesday when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside an army recruitment centre in the centre of the Iraqi capital, authorities said.
The suicide bombing is the bloodiest attack in weeks as political tensions simmer following an inconclusive election more than five months ago and ahead of the end of U.S. combat operations this month.
An army base near the central Maidan square of Baghdad was receiving recruits at the time of explosion. Iraqi forces are preparing for a withdrawal of U.S. forces which will cut their troops to under 50,000 by the end of the month.
"We were lined in a long queue. There were also officers and soldiers. Suddenly an explosion happened. Thank God only my hand was injured," one wounded recruit told Reuters television while doctors in al-Karkh hospital treated his bandaged hand.
The Baghdad operations command said in a statement 39 people had been killed. One army source said the death toll could be as high as 51, with 121 wounded.
The site of the attack used to be the Defence Ministry under Saddam Hussein, turned into an army recruitment centre and military base after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
One army source who declined to be identified said there might have been two suicide bombers, a hallmark of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and its local affiliates.
"They (the recruits) were gathering in large numbers. They let in 250 recruits at a time," the source said.
Bombers frequently target the security forces and militia. Monday's attack was the worst since July 18, when a suicide bomber struck members of a government-backed militia waiting to be paid, and killed at least 39 people.
The bloodshed was the latest in a steady drumbeat of attacks since a March 7 election produced no outright winner and as yet no new government.
While overall violence in Iraq has fallen sharply since the height in 2006-07 of the sectarian slaughter between majority Shi'ites and once dominant Sunnis, a stubborn insurgency remains capable of carrying out large scale attacks.
Iraqi and U.S. officials say the insurgents are trying to exploit political tensions stirred up by unsuccessful coalition talks between the major Shi'ite political factions and a Sunni-backed cross-sectarian alliance which won a narrow victory in the March election.
They are also putting the Iraqi security forces to the test ahead of the formal end of U.S. combat operations this month, part of a plan leading to a full-scale withdrawal in 2011.
(Reporting by Baghdad bureau; Writing by Michael Christie and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Peter Graff)