Suicide bomber kills 40 at recruiting centre

A suicide bomber attacked an Iraqi army recruiting centre today in northern Iraq, killing at least 40 people and wounding 30 others, the Iraqi military said.

A top Iraqi official denounced the United States over a raid that Shiites said killed worshippers in a mosque.

Although the United States said no mosque was attacked, Shiites blamed the military for killing 22 people yesterday and cut off political talks in protest.

President Jalal Talabani said those responsible must be punished.

“I called the American ambassador yesterday and we decided to form an Iraqi-American committee to investigate the attack. I will personally supervise, and we will learn who was responsible. Those who are behind this attack must be brought to the justice and punished,” Talabani said.

Jawad al-Maliki, from the United Iraqi Alliance, said the Shiite bloc had cancelled today’s session of negotiations to form a new government because of the raid.

“We suspended today’s meetings to discuss the formation of the government because of what happened at the al-Moustafa mosque,” he said.

The alliance was expected to decide Tuesday when to resume the talks, he said.

Today’s bomber struck shortly after noon at the recruiting centre in front of a joint US-Iraqi military base between Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city, and the ancient city of Tal Afar.

The US military said no American troops were hurt in the bombing, about 18 miles east of Tal Afar.

US soldiers helped secure the area after the attack and treat the wounded, the US military said.

Iraqi army Lt Akram Eid said many of the wounded were taken to the Sykes US Army base on the outskirts of Tal Afar, which is about 40 miles west of Mosul.

In continuing sectarian violence, at least 21 more bodies were found – many with a noose around their neck – and mortar, rocket and bomb attacks killed at least 11 people in Baghdad and other towns.

Details of a joint US-Iraqi Special Operations attack in north-east Baghdad on Sunday continued to filter out, with Iraqi officials angrily disputing a US account of what happened.

Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said the Mustafa mosque was attacked with worshippers killed, while a US statement said the operation focused on “a compound of several buildings and that “no mosques were entered or damaged during this operation.”

The military said the joint operation “killed 16 insurgents and wounded three others during a house-to-house search on an objective with multiple structures.”

“They also detained 18 other individuals, discovered a significant weapons cache and secured the release of an Iraqi being held hostage,” the statement said.

Jabr angrily denounced the operation and rejected the US account.

“Entering the Mustafa Shiite mosque and killing worshippers was unjustified and a horrible violation from my point of view,” Jabr said on the Al-Arabiya TV news network. “Innocent people inside the mosque offering prayer at sunset were killed.”

Police said gunmen fired on the joint US-Iraqi patrol from a position in the neighbourhood but not from the mosque.

Police and representatives of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who holds great sway among poor Shiites in eastern Baghdad, said all those killed were in the complex for evening prayers and none was a gunmen.

Reporters who visited the scene Monday morning said the site of the attack was a neighborhood Shiite mosque complex.

TV video shot today showed crumbling walls and disarray in a compound used as a gathering place for prayer. It was filled with religious posters and strung with banners denouncing the attack. Mourners were gathering for funerals for the dead.

Other video from last night showed dead male bodies with gunshot wounds on the floor of what was said by the cameraman to be the imam’s living quarters, attached to mosque itself.

The compound, once used by Saddam Hussein’s government, consists of a political party office, the mosque and quarters for the imam.

The video showed 5.56mm shell casings scattered on the floor. US forces use that caliber ammunition.

A grieving man in white Arab robes stepped among the bodies strewn across the blood-smeared floor.

Lt Col Barry Johnson, a US military spokesman, said the operation was only launched after observation of the site convinced the military it was being used as a kidnapping cell.

“In our observation of the place and the activities that were going on, it’s difficult for us to consider this a place of prayer,” Johnson said. “It was not identified by us as a mosque, though we certainly recognised it as a community gathering centre. I think this is frankly a matter of perception.”

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite, expressed concern about the raid and called Iraqi military leaders and US Gen George Casey to discuss it, said spokesman Abdul Rezzaq al-Kadhimi.

Baghdad Gov Hussein Tahan said the local government had cut ties to the US military and diplomatic mission “because of the cowardly attack on the al-Moustafa mosque.”

In the capital, a bomb exploded in a bus headed for the Sadr City slum, killing two passengers and wounding four others, police Col. Hassan Jaloob said. The bomb had been left in a bag, he said.

A rocket that hit the headquarters of the Shiite Fadhila party in south-east Baghdad killed seven people and wounded at least 13, including children, police Capt. Ali Mahdi said.

The latest violence came a day after 69 people were reported killed in one of the bloodiest 24-hour periods in weeks. Most of the dead appeared to be victims of the shadowy Sunni-Shiite score-settling that has torn at the fabric of Iraq since February 22 when a Shiite shrine was blown apart in Samarra, north of Baghdad.

Thirty victims of the continuing sectarian slaughter – most of them beheaded - were found dumped on a village road north of Baghdad.

Among the 21 bodies reported today, nine were found in west Baghdad that were handcuffed, blindfolded and with ropes around their necks, police Lt Akeel Fadhil said.

Three bodies, of two men and a woman shot in the head, were found last night in east Baghdad, police said.

At a farm east of Baghdad, the bodies of nine men kidnapped a day earlier were discovered by relatives, police said. All had been shot in the head.

Much of the recent killing is seen as the work of Shiite militias or death squads that have infiltrated or are tolerated by police under the control of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry.

In an audiotape broadcast today, Saddam’s fugitive chief deputy purportedly called for Arab leaders to back Iraq’s Sunni-backed insurgency.

The tape, which Al-Jazeera television said was made by Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, appeared to be an address to the Arab League summit in Khartoum, Sudan, this week.

The voice said the Sunni-led insurgency was “the sole legitimate representative of the Iraqi people.” It was impossible to determine the tape’s authenticity.

Al-Douri had been Revolutionary Command Council vice chairman and a long-time Saddam confidant.