Dozens hurt in Iraq suicide bombing

Published: 8:42PM Sunday July 10, 2005 Source: Reuters

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A suicide bomber killed at least 21 people and wounded more than 40 at an Iraqi army recruiting centre in western Baghdad.
   
It was the bloodiest suicide bombing in a week that has seen something of a lull in this form of attack.
   
A suicide car bomber also killed three civilians and wounded 10 near the local authority building in the ethnically tense northern oil city of Kirkuk on Sunday, police said.
   
Four police were killed and three wounded further north near Mosul when a suicide bomber hit the motorcade of a district police chief, police said. The brigadier targeted was unscathed.
   
Baghdad's Muthanna airfield recruitment station, near the city centre, has been struck before. Up to 20 died in a suicide attack on a police recruitment centre in Baghdad on July 2, part of a sustained campaign by Sunni Arab insurgents against the Shi'ite-led government's fledgling security forces.
   
Those troops and police are a vital element in Washington's publicly proclaimed strategy of withdrawing its 140,000 or so troops over time and putting Iraqis in the front line of fighting the revolt among the once dominant Sunni minority.
   
The British government appeared to confirm a newspaper report that it had a plan for sharply cutting back its military presence in the south of the country early next year alongside a possible halving of U.S. forces further north at the same time.
   
The defence minister said the plan was just one scenario.
   
A spokesman for the Pentagon, which has said the war in Iraq could last years, insisted Washington had no schedule for withdrawal.
   
Thirty-nine people from Muthanna airfield were being treated at the nearby Yarmuk hospital, medical sources said, and a further 16 bodies had been received there. Other casualties had been taken elsewhere, a hospital official said.
   
Several police sources said at least 42 people were wounded in addition to the 18 dead, revising downward a preliminary police estimate of the death toll from 21.
   
Emergency vehicles raced to the scene, which was cordoned off by troops. The bomb went off as people were starting their working day in the capital.
   
Recruitment to the police and army has surged in recent months, with thousands of unemployed young men willing to face great risks for the prospect of a good salary. Bombers have frequently mingled with them before blowing themselves up.
   
Though the government and its US sponsors insist that the new Iraqi army be drawn from across the country's complex ethnic and sectarian mix, disgruntled Sunni Arab, who formed the elite of Saddam Hussein's military, accuse the government of forming a mostly Shi'ite and Kurdish force directed against them.
   
Such tension has fuelled suggestions that Iraq could descend into civil war in the absence of a major US military presence.
   
A document from Britain's Defence Ministry, leaked in London's Mail on Sunday newspaper, said the British and US governments had plans to reduce their troop levels in Iraq by more than half by mid-2006, handing over to Iraqi forces.
   
The memo, apparently written by Defence Secretary John Reid, said Britain would reduce its troop numbers to 3,000 from 8,500 by the middle of next year and Washington also had a plan to cut its forces to 66,000.
   
With Britain about to take the lead NATO military role in Afghanistan, a reduction in Iraq has been widely expected.
   
"We have a commitment to hand over to Iraqi control in Al Muthanna and Maysan provinces in October 2005 and in the other two, Dhi Qar and Basra, in April 2006," the paper quoted the memo as saying.
   
"Emerging US plans assume 14 out of 18 provinces could be handed over to Iraqi control by early 2006," the memo said.
   
"There is, however, a debate between the Pentagon/Centcom, who favour a relatively bold reduction in force numbers and the multi-national force in Iraq, whose approach is more cautious," read the memo.
   
Reid did not deny that the memo was genuine, but said it was only one possible scenario and no firm decision had been taken about future troop strength.
   
"We have made it absolutely plain we will stay in Iraq for as long as is needed. No decision on the future force posture of UK forces has been taken.
   
"We have always said it is our intention to hand over the lead in fighting terrorists to Iraqi security forces as their capability increases. We therefore continually produce papers outlining possible options and contingencies," he said.
   
In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman, Lieutenant-Commander Joe Carpenter, said: "I am not aware of any decided-upon timeline or that memorandum in particular." 

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