‘There were bodies, mostly civilians everywhere’

BOMBERS killed 42 people yesterday at a Baghdad restaurant favoured by police and an army recruiting centre to the north, while Iraqi troops along the Iranian border found 27 decomposing bodies, unidentified victims of the grisly violence plaguing the country.

In the deadliest bombing in Baghdad since September 19, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a restaurant about 9.45am local time (6.45am Irish time), when officers usually stop in for breakfast. Police Major Falah al-Mohammedawi said 35 officers and civilians died and 25 were wounded.

Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed in an internet posting that it staged the attack in retaliation for US and Iraqi operations near the Syrian border. Earlier, it claimed responsibility for Wednesday night’s hotel bombings in Jordan, linking those blasts to the conflict in Iraq.