Suicide bomber kills 21 Iraqi army recruits

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of Iraqis outside an army recruitment centre in Baghdad today, killing 21 people and injuring 27 more.

It was the deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital since last week’s election.

There were conflicting reports about the attack, which took place at an Iraqi National Guard headquarters at the Muthana airfield.

Iraqi officials blamed the explosion on mortar fire but witnesses reported only one explosion, and the US military said the blast was caused by a suicide bomber.

Elsewhere, three policemen were killed in clashes in Baghdad’s western Ghazaliya district, scene of numerous clashes and assassinations over the past six months.

And assailants sprayed a politician’s car with gunfire, killing two of the man’s sons. The politician, Mithal al-Alusi, who heads the Nation party, escaped the attack unhurt.

He gained notoriety last year after he was expelled from the Iraqi National Congress party for attending a terrorism conference in Israel. Al-Alusi is one of the candidates who ran in Iraq’s landmark elections.

The violence is picking up again in the Iraqi capital following the elections, when a massive security crackdown prevented insurgents from launching major attacks.

Iraqis chose a 275 member National Assembly and provincial councils, as well as a regional parliament in the Kurdish-controlled north.

Final results of the election are expected this week. The latest partial returns released today showed a Kurdish ticket had moved into second place behind a coalition of Shiite religious parties, relegating a faction led by US-backed Prime Minister Ayad Allawi to third place.

First election returns from the Sunni heartland – including Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit – confirmed that many Sunnis stayed away from the ballot box, leaving the field to Shiite and Kurdish candidates.

A Shiite-dominated ticket backed by the Shiite clergy leads among the 111 candidate lists, with a final tally of last week’s National Assembly election expected by the end of the week.

Allawi, who favours strong ties with the United States, had hoped to emerge as a compromise choice for prime minister, but those on the Shiite cleric-backed ticket say they want one of their own for the top job.

Today’s attacks were the latest sign that insurgents are stepping up their assault on Iraq’s security forces, which the United States hopes can assume a greater role once a newly elected government takes office.

On Monday, a suicide bomber also wandered into a crowd of Iraqi policemen near a hospital in the northern city of Mosul, killing 12 officers.

The attacks by bombers on foot point to a shift in rebel tactics, as concrete blast walls and roadblocks have made it harder for guerillas to strike at Iraqi security forces with car bombs.

Also Tuesday, a militant group claimed in an internet statement that it has executed a female Italian journalist abducted in Baghdad for spying on “holy fighters.”