Suicide bombers kill dozens in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Suicide bombers struck Saturday in Baghdad and a Shiite city south of the capital in attacks that killed 25 people and injured nearly 50, Iraqi officials said. One of the attackers targeted bystanders and police who had rushed to the scene of an earlier blast.

In the first attack, an attacker blew himself up outside a recruiting station for police special forces in western Baghdad, killing at least 16 other people, including 11 recruits, police and hospital officials said. Twenty-two more people were injured. A Web statement claimed responsibility in the name of al Qaeda in Iraq.

The other attacks occurred in Hillah, a mostly Shiite city 60 miles south of Baghdad. Police Capt. Muthana Khalid Ali said the first blast occurred when a suicide bomber detonated a belt of explosives at a police checkpoint in the city center. Six policemen and the attacker died in the blast.

About 10 minutes later, a second suicide attacker blew himself up in a crowd of police and civilians who had rushed to the scene of the first blast, Ali said. Twenty-six people were injured, but only the attacker died, according to Dr. Hashim Suleiman, of the Hillah General Hospital.

Also Saturday:

“A fire destroyed a U.S. military helicopter while it was conducting routine resupply operations near Camp Ramadi in western Iraq, slightly injuring one crewman.

“Three Iraqi soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing northeast of Baghdad, their commander said. Gunmen also assassinated a police lieutenant colonel in the northern city of Mosul, officials said.

“Two people were killed when a bomb hidden in a vegetable cart exploded in Mahmoudiya, 12 miles south of Baghdad. The blast occurred a few minutes after mourners passed by with the body of an aide to Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who was slain Friday outside a Baghdad mosque. The mourners were carrying the body through the town en route to burial in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf.

“A policeman and a female relative traveling with him in a civilian car were killed in a drive-by shooting in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers north of Baghdad, authorities said.

“A parked car bomb exploded near a police station in the New Baghdad section of the capital, wounding nine people including two policemen, officials said.