Suicide bombers struck Iraq yesterday, killing at least 33 people and wounding dozens more in three attacks on an army recruiting center, a police convoy and civilians, authorities said.
The attacks pushed the death count to over 1,500 people killed in violence since April 28, when Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his Shiite- and Kurd-dominated government in a country under attack from an insurgency led by Iraq's Sunni Arab minority.
In the deadliest blast yesterday, a man strapped with explosives blew himself up at an Iraqi military recruiting center at Muthana airfield near central Baghdad, killing 25 and wounding 47, the US military and hospital officials said.
Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital confirmed that it had received that number of victims, emergency room Dr Muhanad Jawad said. Hospital officials didn't rule out that other victims might have been taken elsewhere.
The explosion occurred just before 9am at the recruiting center, which had been hit several times before by suicide attackers. About 400 would-be recruits jammed the gate before the bomber detonated himself, police Sergeant Ali Hussein said.
In February, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd outside the recruiting center, killing 21 people and wounding 27 more.
Separately, a suicide car bomber rammed into a police convoy near the northern city of Mosul, killing four policemen and wounding three, police said. The convoy was carrying Brigadier General Salim Salih Meshaal, who escaped injury.
In a third attack, a suicide car bomb exploded in Kirkuk, killing at least four civilians and wounding 15 more, police said. The attack occurred on a highway near a hospital and municipal building.
The bomber used a Mercedes Benz and the target appeared to be civilians because there were no military or police convoys nearby, authorities said.
Most of the casualties were people headed to Kirkuk General Hospital, police said. Three of the wounded were hospital employees.
The force of the blast toppled a few trees and shattered several windows in surrounding buildings.
US troops carried out a controlled explosion on a parked car rigged with a bomb less than 100m away from the first blast in Kirkuk. The second car was intended to cause more casualties as security forces arrived at the scene, police said.
A third car bomb was found near the bus station in Kirkuk and authorities evacuated the area and police said they were looking for two other car bombs in the city.
Other violence overnight Saturday and into yesterday killed at least 13 others in Iraq, including a Shiite family of eight killed in their sleep, a police colonel shot in Baghdad, two other policeman killed in the capital, a security official in Kirkuk and a civilian in Baghdad.
The prime minister, meanwhile, held a news conference to salve relations with Egypt following comments made by Iraq's government spokesman that top Egyptian diplomat Ihab al-Sherif was likely on his way to meet with insurgents when he was abducted last week. It has also been reported that al-Sherif was kidnapped while alone buying a newspaper in Baghdad a week ago.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq later claimed in a Web posting that it killed him.
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