We'll Be Greeted as Liberators UPDATE: 59 die in suicide attack on Iraq army recruitment centre

[Amerigo Vespucci]

59 die in suicide attack on Iraq army recruitment centre
AFP
Published: Tuesday August 17, 2010

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/59_die_in_suicide_attack_on_Iraq_ar_08172010.html

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded army recruitment centre in Baghdad killing 59 people Tuesday, officials said, as violence coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan raged across Iraq.

The attack, blamed on Al-Qaeda and the deadliest this year, wounded at least another 100 people and came a day after Iraq's two main political parties suspended talks over the formation of a new government and as the US withdraws thousands of its soldiers from the country.

US President Barack Obama led international condemnation of the attack, with his spokesman insisting the bomber's attempt to "derail the advances that the Iraqi people have made" would not succeed.

Britain and France joined in, with Paris describing it as "cowardly" and London labelling it "unjustified and vicious."

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a high-level probe into the bombing, which Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim Atta blamed on Al-Qaeda.

"The fingerprints of Al-Qaeda are very clear in this attack," Atta told AFP. "You can see it in the timing, the circumstances, the target and the style of the attack -- all the information indicates it was Al-Qaeda behind this."

An official at Baghdad morgue put the death toll at 59, while a doctor at Medical City hospital, close to the scene of the attack, said they had received 125 wounded.