secretary-general of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation, sons killed

[ElsewheresDaughter]

Mtithal al-Alusi, the secretary-general of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation, smokes a cigarette near body bags containing the bodies of his two sons after surviving an assassination attempt in Baghdad, February 8, 2005. Unknown gunmen ambushed the convoy of al-Alusi in western Baghdad on Tuesday, killing two of his sons, police said. REUTERS/Faleh Kheiber



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BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of Iraqis outside an army recruitment center Tuesday, killing 21 other people and injuring 27 more, the U.S. military said. It was the deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital since last week's election.

Attacks in Iraq Kill at Least 30 People

There were conflicting reports about the attack, which occurred at an Iraqi National Guard headquarters at the Muthana airfield. Iraqi officials blamed the explosion on mortar fire and officials at Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital said they had received 16 bodies from the scene, all of them army recruits.


But witnesses reported only one explosion, and the U.S. military said the blast was caused by a suicide bomber.


Elsewhere, three police officers were killed in clashes in Baghdad's western Ghazaliya neighborhood, scene of numerous clashes and assassinations over the past six months.


Also Tuesday, assailants sprayed a politician's car with gunfire, killing two of the man's sons, an Interior Ministry official said. The politician, Mithal al-Alusi, who heads the Nation party, escaped unhurt.


MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
He gained notoriety last year after he was expelled from the Iraqi National Congress party for attending a terrorism conference in Israel. Al-Alusi is one of the candidates who ran in Iraq (news - web sites)'s landmark Jan. 30 elections.


On Monday, gunmen killed an Iraqi chef employed by U.S. forces at Baghdad International Airport, hospital officials said Tuesday.


The violence is picking up again in the Iraqi capital following the elections, when a massive security crackdown prevented insurgents from launching major attacks. Iraqis chose a 275-member National Assembly and provincial councils, as well as a regional parliament in the Kurdish-controlled north.