‘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.

Samiya Mohammed, who lives near the restaurant, said she rushed out when she heard the explosion.

“There was bodies, mostly civilians, and blood everywhere inside the place. This is a criminal act that only targeted and hurt innocent people having their breakfast,” she said.

There were no Americans in the area, she said.

“I do not understand why most of the time it is the Iraqis who are killed.”

Yesterday’s other big attack came in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, 80 miles north of the capital, where a car bomb blew up outside an Iraqi army recruiting centre.

Police Captain Hakim al-Azawi said seven were killed and 13 wounded. The men were former officers during Saddam’s regime, he said.

Last week, Iraq’s defence minister invited officers of Saddam’s army up to the rank of major to enlist in the new army. It was an overture to Sunni Arab ex-soldiers, many of whom joined the insurgency after the Americans abolished the Iraqi armed forces in 2003.

The bombings came just before British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw arrived in Baghdad for a meeting with Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Elsewhere, Iraqi soldiers found the decomposing bodies of 27 people near Jassan, a town close to the border with Iran.

They were not immediately identified, but the area is a known dumping ground for such groups of bodies, which turn up with regularity in Iraq. Officials suspect death squads from the Shi’ite majority, the Sunni minority and criminal gangs are responsible.

In western Iraq, US officials said Operation Steel Curtain was moving out of the town of Husaybah to the village of Karabilah, a militant stronghold on the Syrian border. The operation aims to secure the area US commanders believe is used to smuggle fighters and weapons into Iraq.

Iraq’s government spokesman said $7 million (€6m) has been earmarked for compensating families for damaged houses and cars in Husaybah and $35m (€30m) for government buildings and infrastructure projects.

The US command said two men suspected of being regional leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq had been confirmed killed during the Husaybah operation.