Suicide bomber kills 25 in northern Iraq

[cal04]

A suicide bomber blew himself up among a group of Iraqi army recruits in northern Iraq on Friday, killing 25 people and wounding 35, police said.
They said the attack occurred outside a municipal building in Rabia, a town 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Mosul, close to the Syrian border. No other details were immediately available.

Police and army recruits are frequently targeted by insurgents. In recent months, attacks by suicide bombers strapped with explosives -- as opposed to driving explosives- laden cars -- have become more common.

Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, and areas to its west have been a focus of insurgent activity over the past year.U.S. forces believe insurgents have been flowing into Iraq across the border from Syria. Rabia is less than 10 km from the Syrian border. Tal Afar, another town in the area, has been a stronghold of rebels for several months.

Many of the attacks in and around Mosul in the past have been claimed by al Qaeda in Iraq, a group headed by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and allied to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=805848§ion=news&src=rss/uk/topNews

[DemsUnite]

1. Sad to say these stories are routine :(

[Athame]

2. That IS the sad part

I almost skipped over this thread, but felt a sort of tug of obligation to at least allow this one into my awareness. It is hard to imagine the carnage with just these repetitive stories and no pix and no interviews...but there is the tag line about Al Qaeda in Iraq claiming credit. Who knows what is true over there?

[Guitarman]

3. How long until...

there have been as many Iraqis killed as a result of the invasion as there were under Saddam's rule. If we keep this up, Saddam will look like an amateur compared to Dubya. It is becoming hard to imagine the amount of blood that is on the hands of our president.

I have to look closely at these stories from day to day. As I wonder if they are the same story. Unfortunately they are not.