BAGHDAD, Sept 5, (Agencies): As many as five suicide bombers killed 12 people on Sunday at an Iraqi army complex in Baghdad, with US troops among those who fired back in a bid to repel the coordinated attack.
American involvement in the response was the first such engagement for US forces in Baghdad since they declared an end to combat operations in Iraq four days ago.
The attack occurred in the morning at Rusafa military command headquarters, three weeks after it was hit by a massive suicide bombing that killed dozens of young men preparing to sign up for the army.
Accounts varied between witnesses and the US and Iraqi security forces, but the capital’s security command said five suicide bombers had approached the compound in a minibus.
One of them was fired upon when he got off the vehicle, and his suicide vest detonated. Two others left the minibus and fled to a nearby building, while the remaining two drove their vehicle towards soldiers, setting it off before they could be stopped.

Lieutenant Colonel Eric Bloom said an American team of military advisors had been stationed at the complex and when the attack occurred, their security team provided “suppressive fire.”
“The team was there, and there was a small security element with them, and they did provide suppressive fire,” Bloom told AFP.
“They provided suppressive fire while the Iraqi army got into position to go in (to a building two insurgents had entered). There was some return fire — the insurgents were firing down into the compound.
“It went on for mere minutes, it was over very quickly.”
Under the terms of a bilateral security pact, US soldiers are allowed to return fire in self-defence, and take part in operations if requested by their Iraqi counterparts.
Baghdad operations command, which is also based at the complex that was attacked, put the toll at 12 dead and 36 wounded.
A defence ministry official said that 11 people had been killed. It was unclear how many of the victims were soldiers.

Bloom said no American soldiers were wounded. He added that the US military had provided bomb disposal support as well as surveillance with drones and Apache helicopters.
“I was waiting with three of my colleagues near an armoured car (when the attack occured),” a policeman told AFP from the hospital, slumped against the wall of the emergency room with bandages covering gunshot wounds to both of his legs.
“I was shot in two places, and I tried to hide behind the car. When I looked for my colleagues again, they were not there — all I saw was blood and the vests that they had set aside.”
The policeman, visibly shaken, added that the vehicle that exploded was a red car that passed through a preliminary search before exploding at a second checkpoint.
“It was a suicide attack,” he said, adding that he had also seen gunmen fire at soldiers and a suicide bomber blow himself up.
The largest blast sent plumes of smoke into the skies over Baghdad, with nervous soldiers frisking any civilians who crossed Bab al-Muatham bridge, which connects the west side of the capital to Rusafa in the east.
The explosion caused extensive damage to nearby buildings and Dr Adil Saloom, director of the hospital’s emergency department, said 20 patients had been treated.
Emergency room nurse Adil Kadhim said most of the victims had suffered fractures, gunshot wounds and trauma.

Soldiers refused to allow people to pass by the site of the attacks, reporting a persistent stream of single gunshots in the area, which they described as sniper fire.
The Rusafa military headquarters, responsible for security on the eastern side of Baghdad, was being used as an army recruitment centre on August 17 when a suicide bomber detonated his payload, killing 59 people.
Sunday’s explosion was the biggest to hit Baghdad since the recruitment centre attack and it came four days after US forces officially transformed their role in Iraq from a combat mission to “advise and assist” operations.
While nearly 50,000 US troops remain stationed in Iraq, US Vice- President Joe Biden launched the new mission while visiting Baghdad last week, opening up a fresh phase in a seven-year deployment that has cost the lives of more than 4,400 American troops.
He said in a speech on Wednesday that violence in Iraq was now at its lowest level since the war, but earlier that day official statistics showed that 426 people had died in unrest in August.
The apparent spike in violence comes amid a political impasse in which no new government has been formed since a general election in March.

Predicted
Meanwhile, the man who once served as the international face of Saddam Hussein’s regime predicted Sunday that he will die in an Iraqi jail, citing his old age and lengthy prison sentence.
During a brief interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, Tariq Aziz said that considering he is 74 and faces more than two decades in prison for crimes related to his role in the former regime, he expects to die behind bars.
“I have no future. I have no future. I’m 74 years old now,” said Aziz. “So I have no future.”
Aziz served for years as Saddam Hussein’s foreign minister, establishing an international reputation as a vociferous defender of the late dictator’s regime who was received by governments around the world. But his years in prison, repeated court cases and illness have left him frail, hobbling on a cane.
Aziz surrendered to US forces about a month after the war started in March 2003, and was held at an American prison in Baghdad until the US handed over control of the facility this July to the Iraqi government. Aziz was handed over as well.

In the interview at the Iraqi High Tribunal, Aziz declined to talk about such topics as politics, the US troop withdrawal or his treatment at the hands of Iraqi officials.
The English-speaking Aziz, who was a rare Christian in Saddam’s inner circle, has been convicted in two cases stemming from the Saddam-era.
Last year, he was convicted and sentenced to 15 years for his role in the 1992 execution of 42 merchants found guilty of profiteering. He also received a seven-year prison sentence for a case involving the forced displacement of Kurds in northern Iraq.
Aziz is currently on trial in a long-running case in which he is accused of being part of a campaign targeting members of the Shiite Dawa Party, of which Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a member.
When Aziz was transferred from US to Iraqi custody in July, his family said they were worried about his health in the Iraqi-run Karkh prison where he is currently housed. Aziz has suffered several strokes, and during recent court appearances has shuffled to and fro in the courtroom with the aid of a cane.
“I’m sick and tired but I wish Iraq and Iraqis well,” he said.