Al-Qaida claimed responsibility on Friday for a suicide bombing which killed 59 people outside an Iraqi army recruitment center in Baghdad, AFP reported.
The attack, the deadliest this year, came as the last US combat brigade exited Iraq.
Iraq said the attack "struck a group of Shiites and 'apostates' who sold their faith for money and to be a tool in the war on Iraqi Sunnis," according to the SITE group which monitors Islamist websites, AFP said.
"The fingerprints of Al-Qaeda are very clear in this attack," Baghdad security spokesman Maj.-Gen Qassim Atta said on Tuesday. "You can see it in the timing, the circumstances, the target and the style of the attack -- all the information indicates it was Al-Qaeda behind this."
