At least 57 recruits and soldiers were killed and 123 wounded today 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 US 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 US 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 said while doctors in al-Karkh hospital treated his bandaged hand.
The toll was not expected to increase, said Deputy Health Minister Khamis al-Saad.
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 US-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.
The bloodshed was the latest in a steady drumbeat of attacks since a March 7th 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 Shias and once dominant Sunnis, a stubborn insurgency remains capable of carrying out large scale attacks.
Iraqi and US officials say the insurgents are trying to exploit political tensions stirred up by unsuccessful coalition talks between the major Shia 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 US combat operations this month, part of a plan leading to a full-scale withdrawal in 2011.
Reuters