Iraq woman bomber kills army recruits

TAL AFAR, Iraq - A female suicide bomber blew herself up outside an army recruitment centre in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, killing at least seven and wounding 37, police said.

The recruitment centre, housed in a former US military base, had only just opened after a joint Iraqi-US military operation which US forces said had effectively rid Tal Afar of what they called "terrorists and foreign fighters".

"A suicide bomber blew herself up in front of the recruitment centre. This centre was supposed to be open today for volunteers," Iraqi General Nejam Abdullah said.

Many people were waiting at the scene to sign up to join the army, police said.

The bombing came a day after the US military said it had killed the man it called the number two figure in al Qaeda in Iraq.

Abu Azzam was deputy to the organisation's leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq's most wanted man, the US military said, although al Qaeda ridiculed this claim in an internet statement. Abu Azzam was killed at the weekend.

The American military called his death a serious blow to the militant group at the heart of Iraq's insurgency. But suicide bombings have continued since his death.

This particular attack mirrored a suicide bombing of a recruitment centre in Baquba, 65 km north of Baghdad, a day earlier. At least 10 died in that blast, with around 30 wounded.

Iraqi and US troops recently ended a joint military operation in Tal Afar, which they say has long been a stronghold of insurgents. The US military says during the operation it killed or captured over 500 people whom it calls "terrorists or foreign fighters".

They hailed the full-scale assault on the town as a success and said they had brought Tal Afar back under their control.

But previous military operations against insurgency strongholds have not led to peace.

Iraq's Shi'ite- and Kurdish-dominated government is facing an insurgency from the country's Sunni Arab minority, and violence has escalated in the run-up to an October 15 referendum on a contentious new constitution for the post-Saddam Hussein era.

Sunnis have dominated Iraq for decades, under Saddam and before, but their influence has all but disappeared since his ouster.

They fear the new constitution will formalise their reduced role by giving greater autonomy to the southern Shi'ites, in line with that already enjoyed by northern Kurds -- including control of oil revenues, the mainstay of Iraq's battered economy.

Many Sunnis have vowed to work for the rejection of the new charter at the referendum.

Hundreds have died in bombings, suicide attacks and shootings across Iraq in recent weeks, amid fears that sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shi'ites may plunge Iraq into civil war.

- REUTERS