Gunmen kill National Guard recruits

Gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying a group of Iraqi National Guard applicants in Baghdad today, killing six people, police said.

The group had just left a national guard recruiting centre where they had signed up to join the force in the west Baghdad neighbourhood of Al-Jamiyah when the attack occurred, said police Lt. Omar Ahmed.

On Wednesday, a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb outside a photocopy shop in Al-Jamiyah where national guard applicants were readying their papers before heading to the recruiting centre, killing at least six people and wounded 54.

Militants waging a 17-month insurgency have repeatedly targeted Iraqi security forces and would-be recruits in a bid to thwart US-backed efforts to build a strong Iraqi force capable of taking over security from American troops. Hundreds have been killed.