Bomber kills 15 at Iraqi police recruit centre

By Mussab Al-Khairalla

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 15 people, mostly police recruits, outside an Iraqi army base west of Baghdad on Saturday in a fresh attack on volunteers for the U.S.-trained local security forces.

Police and an army source said the bomber detonated his explosive-packed vest in a queue of recruits lining up for jobs near Abu Ghraib prison, 30 km (20 miles) west of the capital.

"The bomber got in the line and blew himself up," the army source said. Police said the blast killed 15 and wounded 22. Most of the victims were recruits.

Bombers frequently target Iraqi police and army recruitment centres, which are key to helping build up Iraq's security forces and thus paving the way for the eventual withdrawal of the 150,000 U.S. troops deployed in Iraq.

Last month, a female suicide bomber killed 17 Iraqi police recruits in the town of Muqdadiya, northeast of Baghdad.

A U.S.-backed security crackdown in Baghdad has reduced the number of sectarian killings in the capital, but insurgents have stepped up attacks in the capital's beltways, where U.S. commanders believe militants have regrouped.

U.S. President George W. Bush, who is under pressure from opposition Democrats to set a timetable for withdrawing, has said American forces will leave Iraq when Iraqi troops can take over security in the fight against death squads and insurgents that have pitched the country close to all-out civil war.

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