BAGHDAD, Aug 17, (Agencies): A suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded army recruitment centre in Baghdad killing 61 people Tuesday, officials said, as violence coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan raged across Iraq.

The attack, blamed on al-Qaeda and the deadliest this year, wounded at least another 100 people and came a day after Iraq’s two main political parties suspended talks over the formation of a new government and as the US withdraws thousands of its soldiers from the country.
US, Britain and France led international condemnation of the attack, with Paris describing it as “cowardly” and London labelling it “unjustified and vicious.” US President Barack Obama condemned the bombing
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered a high-level probe into the bombing, which Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim Atta blamed on al-Qaeda.

“The fingerprints of al-Qaeda are very clear in this attack,” Atta told AFP. “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.”

An official at Baghdad morgue put the death toll at 59, while a doctor at Medical City hospital, close to the scene of the attack, said they had received 125 wounded.
The bomber blew himself up around 7:30 am (0430 GMT) at the centre, a former ministry of defence building that now houses a local security command, in the Baab al-Muatham neighbourhood in the heart of the capital.

An interior ministry official said the majority of the victims were prospective soldiers seeking to enlist on the last day of a week-long recruitment drive but that some troops who were protecting the compound were also hurt and killed.
“After the explosion, everyone ran away, and the soldiers fired into the air,” said 19-year-old Ahmed Kadhim, one of the recruits at the centre who escaped unharmed from the attack.
“I saw dozens of people lying on the ground, some of them were on fire. Others were running with blood pouring out.”

Kadhim said the recruits, who had to pass two searches to enter the recruitment centre compound, had been divided into groups based on their educational qualifications, with the suicide bomber targeting the selection of high school graduates.

A doctor at Medical City hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several of the wounded remained in critical condition and added that most of the victims were “very young — less than 20 years old.”

Iraqi security forces cordoned off the area following the attack, and security was stepped up across the capital, leading to traffic gridlock during the morning rush hour.
A shop owner in the area, who did not want to be named, blamed negligence on the part of army officers for the attack.

“This is the fault of the officers responsible for securing the area — they let these recruits gather outside the centre without any protection,” he said.

Also on Tuesday, two separate bomb attacks against judges in Baghdad and the central city of Baquba left four of them wounded, security officials said.
The recruitment centre explosion was the bloodiest single attack here since December 8, when coordinated blasts in the capital killed 127 people, and recalls a spate of suicide bombings against army recruitment posts in 2006 and 2007, when Iraq’s insurgency was at its peak.
Violence has surged in the past two months in Iraq, with 200 people already killed in August alone and Iraqi government figures saying that 535 people died in July — the deadliest month in Iraq since 2008. The US military disputes the July figure, saying 222 people died violently.

The latest bloodletting, which also coincides with Ramadan which began in Iraq on August 11, has sparked concern that local forces are not yet prepared to handle the country’s security on their own.
American commanders, however, insist that Iraqi soldiers are up to the job as they pull out thousands of their forces ahead of a declaration to an end to combat operations at the end of August.
But Iraq’s top military officer has raised doubt about his soldiers’ readiness when the last US troops depart as scheduled at the end of 2011. American forces would need to stay until 2020, Lieutenant General Babaker Zebari said earlier this month.

Iraq is also mired in a political stalemate, with the winner of its March election breaking off talks with his main rival Monday evening, dampening already faint hopes that a government could be formed before Ramadan ends in the middle of September.

In Seattle, US President Barack Obama Tuesday condemned a suicide bombing in Iraq as the work of people hoping to “derail” democracy, his spokesman said.
“The president condemns those attacks,” said spokesman Bill Burton.
“There are obviously still people who want to derail the advances that the Iraqi people have made towards democracy, but they are firmly on track and we’re confident that we’re moving towards the end of our combat mission there.”

Japan condemned a suicide bomb attack at an army recruitment center in Baghdad on Tuesday, saying terrorism cannot be justified for any reason.
“Japan is greatly shocked and indignant at the attack, which caused many casualties,” Foreign Ministry’s Press Secretary Kazuo Kodama said in a statement.
“Japan reiterates its firm condemnation of these atrocious acts of terrorism that indiscriminately target innocent people,” Kodama said.
He also expressed Japan’s deepest condolences for those who have been killed by the attacks and to the families of the victims. Japan will keep its proactive support towards such efforts by the Iraqi people, he added.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa condemned on Tuesday the latest Baghdad bombings, attributing them to the lack of political stability in Iraq.
He affirmed that in order to save Iraq from such acts and allow stability to occur, a political consensus is required, which is the basis of security for all Iraqis.

Kuwait

Meanwhile, Iraq still owes Kuwait $22.3 billion in reparations from its invasion of the Gulf Arab state two decades ago and the Gulf War that liberated it, a Kuwaiti official said in remarks published on Tuesday.
Mansour Hayat, of the state committee that is coordinating the claims with a UN compensation commission, told al-Seyassah daily in an interview all of the outstanding payments were due to the government and the oil sector.
He said individuals and companies had received a total of $18.78 billion.
Iraq is seeking forgiveness of outstanding compensation, or a reduction in the amount of annual oil revenue it has been setting aside to pay war reparations to Kuwait and other countries affected by the 1990-1991 Gulf crisis.

Baghdad argues it needs the extra cash to help fund rebuilding after the 2003 US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Kuwait resumed diplomatic ties with Iraq after the invasion but has so far opposed forgiving the reparations.
In another report, the United States is establishing consulates or branch embassies in four sensitive cities key to Iraq’s future as it ends its combat role and boosts diplomatic activity, US officials said on Monday.

US consulates are being established in Basra, near the key oil port of Umm Qasr, and Arbil, Kurdistan’s capital, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Michael Corbin said.
“These consulates provide a recognized important diplomatic platform for all the types of programs that we want to do now and that we’ll want to do in the future,” he told a briefing.
“One is in the Kurdish region in the north and the other is in Basra, which has enormous economic importance being close to Umm Qasr, Iraq’s only port, and close to the new oil fields,” Corbin said.
The United States also plans to establish temporary embassy branch offices that would remain open for three to five years. One will be in the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which is claimed by both Kurds and Arabs, and the other will be in Mosul, which faces continuing insurgency-related violence.
“We chose the Kurd-Arab faultline,” Corbin said. “There are issues in Kirkuk and in Mosul that have not only to do with Arab-Kurd issues, but also Iraq’s minorities, the Yazidis and Christians, and we want to be able to address their issues.”
Violence is still a problem for Mosul, he said. “It is still the place with the greatest amount of insurgency, with the greatest amount of terrorist attacks.”