25 Iraqis Killed in Suicide Attack

A suicide bomber wearing an Iraqi national guard uniform blew himself up Friday in an army recruitment center in northern Iraq, killing 25 people, Iraqi officials said.

A witness said the assailant posed as a recruiter and said, “Who wants to register his name?” As young men, eager for the chance at a job, rushed toward him, he detonated his explosives, said Ali Thannon, one of 35 people injured in the blast in Rabia, near the border with Syria. Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility.

In western Iraq, insurgents killed two Marines, military officials said Friday, and a soldier died in an accident in Baghdad. Those deaths brought to 11 the number of U.S. fatalities in Iraq this week.

The two Marines were killed Thursday by insurgent gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades in a village west of Haditha. U.S. jets dropped high-tech bombs that destroyed three buildings used by the guerrillas as firing positions, military officials said. The Marines reported killing nine insurgents, five of them believed to be Syrians, in the clash, about 170 miles west of Baghdad.

The town of Rabia, where the suicide bomber struck, is about 50 miles northwest of Mosul. Although nearby towns have had some trouble, it is not an area that has had suicide attacks. The U.S. military said it had largely shut down the northern access routes being used by insurgents to enter Iraq and that people were now entering from farther south.

But as the attack in Rabia suggests, there either are many would-be bombers already in the country or the border is still porous.

Thannon said there had been an announcement to come to the sign-up center starting Thursday, but so many people showed up that the recruiters told some to come back at 7 a.m. Friday. “I didn’t know anything after the explosion until I found myself here at the hospital,” he said.

The explosion shocked Abdul-Aziz Jerba, a tribal chief in Rabia. “We regret what happened this noon.... Rabia is known for being one of the most safe and stable places.”

Dr. Fadhil Abbas at the Republican Hospital in Mosul said he had received 12 people, most of them in serious condition. “We’ve been told the number of dead are increasing,” he said.

An Internet statement posted in the name of Al Qaeda in Iraq said the group, led by Jordanian Abu Musab Zarqawi, carried out the attack. The claim could not be verified.

Since the announcement of the new Iraqi government in April, at least 793 Iraqi security forces and 1,361 Iraqi civilians have been killed in 477 attacks, according to an Associated Press tally. The actual number is thought to be higher, as many killings go unreported or uncounted. The AP tally is compiled from hospital, police and military officials cited in news stories, as well as accounts from reporters and photographers.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said it had captured a cell leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. Ammar Abu Bara, also known as Amar Hussein Hasan, was arrested Wednesday in Mosul by members of the Army’s 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, a statement said.

Abu Bara was taken into custody during a search, the statement said. It said he had taken over from Abu Talha, a terrorist leader in the Mosul area who was arrested last month.