Iraq: Suicide bomber kills 16 Iraqi soldiers

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
At least 16 Iraqi soldiers were killed and 50 were wounded on Thursday when a suicide bomber dressed in an army uniform detonated an explosives belt among troops lined up for lunch at a base west of Baghdad, officials said. The attack took place at the joint base shared by Iraqi soldiers and US troops in the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Habbaniyah, about 45 miles west of Baghdad, two Iraqi officers said. An Iraqi colonel, who spoke to AP over the phone from the base, said the bomber wore an Iraqi army uniform. The colonel ruled out the possibility that the attacker had entered the base through checkpoints at the camp gates, where security is tight, and speculated he sneaked through gaps in the concertina wire fence surrounding the camp. It was unknown whether any US soldiers were near the scene of the blast.