By Muhanad Mohammed
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Five suicide bombers armed with rifles tried to storm an army base in Baghdad on Sunday, killing seven people and wounding 29 less than a week after Washington declared U.S. combat operations in Iraq over.
Two attackers blew themselves up at the back gate of the compound after being shot, while a third detonated a minibus packed with explosives at the entrance. The remaining two fought an hour-long gunbattle with troops before being killed, said Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi.
Sunday's assault took place in broad daylight, just over two weeks after dozens of Iraqi army recruits and soldiers were killed by another suicide bomber at the same base and a few days after the August 31 end to U.S. combat operations in Iraq.
Insurgents are targeting Iraqi police and troops as the U.S. military gradually pulls out more than seven years after invading, while the failure of Iraq's leaders six months after an election to agree a new government has also stoked tensions.
"It was an attempt to break into the Rusafa military command. It was similar to the attack on the central bank but security forces foiled the assault and killed all attackers," Moussawi said, referring to a June 13 siege by up to seven suicide bombers of the Central Bank of Iraq.
All five of the attackers involved in Sunday's assault on the military base were wearing suicide vests, said Moussawi, and arrived at the back gate of the military base in a minibus.
Two leapt out and charged the gate, firing weapons at the soldiers manning it to clear a path for the minibus.
When they were shot they detonated their vests. Two other attackers then also jumped out, weapons firing, while the driver tried to drive into the gate. He was shot and blew the bus up.
The two remaining attackers fled into a building that was under construction and held Iraqi security forces at bay for at least an hour before being killed.
Police, Interior Ministry sources and Moussawi all put the death toll at seven. Moussawi said four of the dead were soldiers. He added that 29 people were wounded.
"There are bodies and body parts but we don't know if they belong to attackers or civilians," Moussawi said.
GUNFIRE
Residents in the neighbourhood reported heavy shooting after the explosions and said the gunfire continued for over an hour.
Witnesses said they saw gunmen in one mainly Sunni district nearby. The area became an al Qaeda stronghold at the height in 2006/07 of the sectarian warfare unleashed after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, and remained dangerous until mid-2009.
The base was a defence ministry headquarters under Saddam Hussein and now serves as an army recruitment centre as well as a military command.
At least 57 recruits and soldiers were killed and 123 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up there on August 17.
Tensions are simmering in Iraq six months after an inconclusive election that produced no outright winner.
Coalition talks among the country's main Shi'ite-led blocs and a Sunni-backed cross-sectarian alliance that took a narrow lead in the March 7 vote have made little progress.
The end of the U.S. combat mission 7-1/2 years after the invasion to topple Saddam has raised fears of a return to broader bloodshed and of increased attacks by Sunni Islamist insurgents. Iraq's 660,000-strong security forces had to be rebuilt from scratch after being disbanded after the invasion.
U.S. leaders said last week the Iraq war was in its final stages and that Iraqi security forces are capable of countering violence in the country, but many Iraqis do not believe their army and police are ready for the task.
(Additional reporting by Suadad al-Salhy, Ahmed Rasheed and Reuters Television; Writing by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Michael Christie)
