IRAQ: At least 47 people were killed and dozens injured when a suicide bomber struck an army recruitment centre in Baghdad, by Jack Fairweather in Baghdad
Hundreds of would-be soldiers for the new Iraqi army were queuing outside a recruitment centre when a car packed with explosives detonated.
The blast takes to 100 the number of Iraqis killed in the past 24 hours, marking one of the bloodiest days since the war. On Tuesday, a similar attack at a police recruitment centre south of Baghdad killed 55 people.
The blast took place at about 7.40 a.m. local time in a neighbourhood less than a mile from the green zone, the high-security area where US administrators are based.
Witnesses said a white van drove up to the entrance of the centre before detonating over 400lbs of plastic explosives. The blast left a crater several feet across and body parts scattered over the street.
Mr Abdullah Jaffar, one recruit, said: "I thought it was some people trying to jump the queue. The next second there were flames and a field of dead people."
US forces set up a security cordon at the blast site while ambulances ferried the dead and injured to local hospitals.
The blast was at least the ninth vehicle bombing in Iraq this year and followed warnings from occupation officials that insurgents would increase attacks against Iraqis who work with the coalition ahead of a transfer of power to Iraqis by June 30th.
The US military said there is a change of tactics by terrorist groups, who now favour targeting Iraqis who work with the US-led coalition instead of well-defended military targets.
A military spokesman said: "This attack was aimed strictly at Iraqis to scare them off working with the government."
The police and new army are central to Washington's plan to begin a gradual withdrawal of US forces.
The attacks also coincide with the UN's visit to Iraq to determine whether elections can be held before the summer transfer of power. Iraq's deputy interior minister, Mr Ahmed Kathim, said the latest carnage was aimed at showing that the country was too unstable for elections.
"The terrorists think by terrorism they can send a message to the Iraqi people and to the United Nations team that there is a situation of insecurity in the country," he said.
The US army has doubled the bounty to $10 million for Abu Musab Zarqawi, whom US officials say is an Islamic militant with links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and who is plotting to ignite civil war in Iraq.
A letter purportedly written by Zarqawi urged suicide bombings against Iraq's Shias in a bid to spark war, according to a copy released by US forces yesterday.
No independent verification of the letter's authenticity was available. "Fighting the Shia is the way to take the nation to battle," read the document, provided only in an English translation by the US authorities in Baghdad.