Suicide bomber kills 28 in Iraq
Suicide bombers struck Iraq today, killing at least 28 and wounding dozens more in three attacks on an army recruiting centre, 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, a man strapped with explosives blew himself up at a west Baghdad airfield now used as a military recruiting centre, police said.
Early casualty reports varied, with a hospital official saying at least 21 died while a Defence Ministry employee reported up to 25 killed.
The explosion occurred just before 9am (6am Irish time) at the recruiting centre, which had been hit several times before by suicide attackers. About 400 would-be recruits jammed the gate before the bomber detonated himself, police Sgt. Ali Hussein said.
Yarmouk Hospital received 21 bodies and 41 people wounded from the attack, emergency room Dr Muhanad Jawad said. Hospital officials didn’t rule out that other victims might have been taken elsewhere.
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 three civilians and wounding 16 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.
Other violence overnight and into this morning killed at least five others in Iraq, including a police colonel shot in Baghdad, two other policeman killed in the capital, a security official in Kirkuk and a civilian in Baghdad.
