Bomb kills Baghdad recruits as UK eyes troop cuts

BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 40 at an Iraqi army recruiting centre in western Baghdad on Sunday, hospital sources and police said.

One Interior Ministry source put the death toll at 22.

The attack, claimed by al Qaeda's Iraq wing in an internet posting, was the bloodiest in a week that has seen something of a lull in mass killings. Some insurgents have turned on other targets, including, in al Qaeda's case, top foreign diplomats.

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.

Baghdad's Muthanna airfield recruitment station, near the city centre, has been struck before, 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 Blair government responded to a newspaper report that it and Washington had plans to halve their forces in Iraq by next year by saying this was just one scenario.

A spokesman for the Pentagon, which has said the war in Iraq could last years, insisted it had no schedule for withdrawal.

RECRUITMENT STRONG

Thirty-nine people from Muthanna airfield were being treated at the nearby Yarmuk hospital, medical sources said, and 16 bodies had been received there.

Several police sources said at least 42 people were wounded and that 18 people had been killed. 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 Arabs, 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.

Passions flared in one mainly Shi'ite district of eastern Baghdad on Sunday as word spread of the overnight massacre of a local family of nine, who were shot in their beds. Police had no immediate leads but relatives levelled accusations at Sunnis.

TROOPS DEBATE

A document from the British 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 cut its force to 3,000 from 8,500 and Washington also had a plan to cut its forces to 66,000.

"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 multinational force in Iraq, whose approach is more cautious."

President George W. Bush has responded to opinion polls showing falling popularity for his Iraq policy by telling voters that US forces will stand down "as Iraqis stand up".

US commanders on the ground say they are pleased with the progress Iraqi forces but caution that training will take time.

Reid said in response to the report: "We have made it absolutely plain we will stay in Iraq for as long as is needed."

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Joe Carpenter, said: "I am not aware of any decided-upon timeline."

- REUTERS