Blast kills 21 Iraqis outside army base

Nine other Iraqis, including two sons of a politician and his bodyguard, were killed in separate attacks across Iraq.

The blast came a day after suicide bombers killed 27 people in attacks in two Iraqi cities. Between them, the three bombs have shattered the lull in violence which followed the poll.

Police said the attacker's target was a truck carrying recruits into the base in a disused airport in Baghdad. The US military said the bomber was believed to have been on foot.

A plume of black smoke rose into the sky above the recruitment center and ambulances raced to the scene. Hospital officials said all the victims appeared to be young men.

Guerrillas have frequently attacked Iraqis queuing up to join the police and army. Most of those killed in Monday's blasts in the cities of Mosul and Baquba were either policemen or civilians looking for work with the police.

al-Qaeda's wing in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for those blasts and vowed further attacks on "apostates and their masters," an apparent reference to US-led forces and the Iraqis who work with them.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, police said a bomb outside a popular restaurant killed one Iraqi, and gunmen ambushed the convoy of an Iraqi politician, killing two of his sons and his bodyguard.

"Yes, my two sons died and my bodyguard as well. It was a gunfire attack on my car near my house," said the 52-year-old Alusi.

Three Iraqi soldiers and two insurgents were killed in a firefight on a road leading south from Baghdad to the city of Hilla, the Iraqi army said. Eighteen insurgents were arrested.

Five policemen were wounded by a roadside bomb in Baquba, a police source said. In nearby Samarra, police said an Iraqi civilian was killed and three relatives were wounded when three mortar rounds hit their house.