At least 39 killed in Iraq bomb attacks

PanARMENIAN.Net - Insurgents killed at least 39 people in a wave of attacks against Iraqi security forces on Sunday, Sept. 9, gunning down soldiers at an army post and bombing police recruits waiting in line to apply for jobs, The Associated Press reported.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, although security forces are a frequent target of al-Qaida's Iraqi franchise, which has vowed to reassert itself and take back areas it was forced from before U.S. troops withdrew from the country last year.

In Sunday’s deadliest attack, gunmen stormed a small Iraqi Army outpost in the town of Dujail before dawn, killing at least 10 soldiers and wounding eight more, according to police and hospital officials in the nearby city of Balad, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad.

Hours later, a car bomb struck a group of police recruits waiting in line to apply for jobs with the state-run Northern Oil Co. outside the northern city of Kirkuk. City police commander Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir said seven recruits were killed and 17 wounded. He said all the recruits were Sunni Muslims and blamed the early morning attack on al-Qaida, but did not provide details.

The carnage even stretched into the country's south, where bombs stuck to two parked cars exploded in the city of Nasiriyah, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Baghdad. The blasts were near the French consulate and a local hotel in the city, although the consulate did not appear to be the target of the attack.

A string of smaller attacks also struck eight other cities, including Baghdad.