Suicide bombers hit Iraqi army base

Tuesday 15 July 2008

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at an Iraqi army base north of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 23 people and wounding dozens, the US military has said.

BAGHDAD, July 15 (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers killed 23
people and wounded 68 at a recruitment centre for the Iraqi army
north of Baghdad on Tuesday, an Iraqi security source said, just
days after the government promised a crackdown in the area.
 

The security source said most of those killed were recruits.
 

The U.S. military said 16 recruits were killed and 30
wounded when the bombers blew themselves up in a queue outside a
security base in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad.
 

The attack follows a string of bombings in recent months in
Diyala province, of which Baquba is the capital.
 

Sunni Islamist al Qaeda has sought to stoke tensions in
religiously and ethnically mixed Diyala. It has frequently
targeted policemen and police recruits.
 

Iraqi security forces are poised to launch a major crackdown
in Diyala, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday, the latest
military operation aimed at stabilising the country.
 

"What's happening here is the enemy knows the government and
security forces are getting stronger," said Major Peggy
Kageleiry, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military in northern Iraq.
 

The Interior Ministry has not given a date for the start of
the Diyala crackdown.
 

U.S. forces have been conducting security operations in
Diyala since the beginning of the year and would take part in
the new Iraqi push, the military has said.
 

Al Qaeda has sought to regroup in Iraq's north after
sustained military campaigns pushed the militants out of their
former strongholds in Iraq's western Anbar province and Baghdad.
 

The Diyala crackdown will be the latest Iraqi-led offensive
aimed at stamping government authority on areas once in the
hands of Sunni Arab insurgents or Shi'ite militias.
 

U.S. and Iraqi officials say a campaign against al Qaeda in
the northern city of Mosul and surrounding Nineveh province has
helped reduce violence there. Other operations have targeted
Shi'ite militias in the southern provinces of Basra and Maysan.
 

Overall attacks across Iraq were down 85 percent in June
from a year ago, the Iraqi military said last week.