By Hannah Allam and Mohammed al Dulaimy,Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Suicide bombers struck throughout Iraq on Sunday, killing at least 38 people and wounding dozens in a series of attacks aimed mainly at the country’s overwhelmed and vulnerable security forces.

The deadliest attack came when a man wearing an explosives vest blew himself up in a large crowd of recruits outside an Iraqi army center in the capital, killing at least 23 people and wounding another 47. Al-Qaida in Iraq said one of its members had carried out “the heroic attack on a recruiting center for the idolatrous guards,” according to an Internet statement that could not immediately be verified.

Sunday’s attacks heaped dozens onto the number of Iraqis killed – at least 1,500 total – since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s government took office April 28. Sunni Muslim insurgents are on a campaign to cripple al-Jaafari’s mainly Shiite and Kurdish administration with devastating attacks that expose the government’s inability to protect its security forces and infrastructure.

Apart from the bloodshed, ordinary Iraqis are suffering July’s sweltering days with only intermittent water and electricity, partly because of rebel sabotage.

“We are going to investigate the circumstances and do whatever we can to prevent this from happening again,” al-Jaafari told a news conference in Baghdad. “We have to take into consideration that the terrorists’ deeds are cowardly ones. They rig cars in order to kill the largest number of people possible. We look forward to decreasing these (bombings) until there are none.”

Sunday’s attack was only the latest at the frequently targeted Muthana recruiting center, where hundreds of young men line up outside the gates every day with scant protection against suicide bombers or drive-by shootings. In February, a bombing killed 21 people and wounded 27 at the station.

The blast Sunday sent one of Baghdad’s main arteries into chaos during early-morning rush hour. Seconds after the explosion, smoke billowed through the street and bewildered Iraqi troops fired randomly into crowds of passersby running from the scene. Iraqi officials couldn’t explain why more security precautions weren’t in place at a site considered a prime target.

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“The minister of interior had issued an order to all forces not to put the recruits outside buildings and to keep them inside safe buildings,” said Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman, a spokesman for Iraqi forces. “This came after last Friday’s suicide attack on our ministry’s commandos. This attack was against the defense ministry. They have their own procedures.”

The Iraqi defense ministry also announced a bombing in the northern city of Kirkuk early Sunday morning. A car bomber detonated outside the al Sadriya Hospital, killing at least four people and wounding eight others. The target was unknown; the victims were said to be civilians. Sunni Arabs and the Turkmen minority are in a fierce battle with Kurds over control of the ethnically diverse, oil-rich city. The future of Kirkuk is one of the knottiest issues in the drafting of Iraq’s permanent constitution, which is due by mid-August.

In the city of Mosul, also in northern Iraq, another bomber rammed a car into a police convoy carrying an Iraqi brigadier general, authorities said. Four policemen died in the attack; eight were injured. The officer was not harmed.

Other violence Sunday:

– A roadside bombing in Baghdad wounded five American soldiers in a convoy in the Rasheed district, the U.S. military announced.

– Two suicide car bombers at a remote checkpoint along the Syrian border killed seven Iraqi customs officials and forced the border crossing to shut down temporarily, the U.S. military said. No other details were available.

– The bullet-riddled body of an Iraqi karate and judo champion who had been missing was discovered Sunday floating in the Tigris River south of Baghdad, Iraqi authorities said. Ali Shakir, 38, was abducted Thursday for unknown reasons as he drove the perilous road through Latifiyah, part of three villages known as the “Triangle of Death.”

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(Al Dulaimy is a Knight Ridder special correspondent.)

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(c) 2005, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

AP-NY-07-10-05 1620EDT

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