21 Killed in Car Bombings in Kirkuk and Baghdad

Insurgents detonated three car bombs Saturday in their campaign against Iraqi security forces and U.S.-led troops, killing 19 people in a crowd outside a national guard recruiting station in Kirkuk and two U.S. soldiers on the road to the Baghdad airport.

Kidnappers also released the first video images of two Americans and a Briton who were seized Thursday from a residence in Baghdad. Each man identified himself and repeated an identical phrase describing the work they had been doing. The Al Jazeera satellite channel, which showed the tape, said that the kidnappers were militants loyal to Abu Musab Zarqawi.

Al Jazeera also aired a videotape of what it said were 10 kidnapped employees of a Turkish-American firm. Their captors threatened to execute them if the company did not cease operations in Iraq within three days.

The car bomb in Kirkuk sent shrapnel tearing through a crowd of young men gathered outside a recruiting center to apply for jobs in the Iraqi national guard.

“From the early morning I saw a big number of young men in front of the building,” said Yawiz Qadir, a 44-year-old mechanic who was in his garage nearby when the attack occurred.

“I saw the fire and smoke rising upwards from the place where all the young men were.”

In addition to the 19 killed, 67 people were wounded.

Job applicants often crowd around the gates to bases or police stations, and have been a prime target for bombers. A car bomb killed 47 people Tuesday outside a Baghdad police recruiting station. On Sept. 4, a suicide car bomb outside a police academy in Kirkuk killed at least 20 people.

The tactic is intended to discourage Iraqis from joining the security forces, but many people remain willing to brave the risk. Most of the applicants say they are driven by a mixture of patriotism and desperation for one of the few available jobs.

In Baghdad, a pair of suicide bombers struck U.S. convoys along a road leading to the airport.

The U.S. military said the first car bomb wounded three soldiers. The second bomber struck half an hour later, hitting a U.S. reaction team headed to the site, raising the possibility that the attacks were coordinated. That blast killed two soldiers and wounded eight.

Firefighters worked to douse several burning vehicles at the site of the second blast. Army medics rushed through the security cordon carrying body bags.

An Iraqi national guard officer at the scene said the bomber detonated a Volkswagen Passat in the midst of the convoy. He said American troops at the scene were visibly distraught.

U.S. forces shut down the airport road west of Baghdad for several hours, causing massive traffic delays throughout the city. The road, one of the riskiest in the city, has been the site of dozens of deadly attacks.

Rear Adm. Greg Slavonic said he didn’t know whether the bombers had worked in tandem, but said the incidents were under investigation.

North of the capital, 11 students at the Baqubah Technical College were wounded when a mortar round struck near the school grounds.

The mortar fire was aimed at a group of Iraqi police and national guard troops who were responding to a report of a roadside bomb explosion, the U.S. military said.

Despite the bloodshed, interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi insisted that the opposition was not getting stronger, only more desperate.

In an interview to be aired today on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Allawi pointed to success in trouble spots such as Samarra.

He said that his forces were preparing to go into another major hotspot, Fallouja, but did not say when. Allawi will be visiting the United Nations this week.

The Al Jazeera video showed the three Western hostages taken Thursday in Baghdad: Americans Jack Hensley and Eugene “Jack” Armstrong, and Kenneth Bigley of Britain.

They were shown blindfolded and seated on the floor in front of a black-clad man reading a statement.

Each man identified himself and said his job was “installing and furnishing camps at the Taji Base.”

Taji is a large U.S. encampment 10 miles north of the capital. The captors demanded the release of Iraqi women detained in two U.S.-run prisons.

A visiting congressional delegation said establishing security was a top priority before elections in January. Rep. Amo Houghton (R-N.Y.) said that “under no circumstances” would he advocate a delay in the election.

Times staff writer Janet Hook in Washington and special correspondent Yalman Zainalabideen in Kirkuk contributed to this report.