Twin attacks kill Iraqi army recruits

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two suicide bombers detonated explosives-laden vests, one after the other, outside an Iraqi army base Tuesday north of Baghdad, killing at least 28 people and wounding 55 others, officials said.

Most of the casualties were army recruits, the Iraqi Interior Ministry and hospital officials said.

The attacks occurred outside the recruitment center at Saad military base in Baquba, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

In other violence Tuesday, suicide bombers in the northern city of Mosul killed nine people and wounded 11 others.

An Interior Ministry official said the Baquba attacks targeted recruits who were waiting outside the base Tuesday morning. Watch the aftermath of suicide blasts »

The U.S. military confirmed the twin attacks but gave a lower figure for the casualties.

Baquba is the capital of Diyala province, which stretches north and east of Baghdad.

Late last month, officials announced a military push in the province aimed at flushing out al Qaeda in Iraq militants who have fled to that region from other areas.

The operation is expected to be similar to offensives against militants in Basra and Baghdad's Sadr City, and those in northern Iraq's Nineveh province against the predominantly Sunni al Qaeda in Iraq.

On June 22, a female suicide bomber attacked a crowded area in central Baquba, killing at least 16 people and wounding another 40. Police, women and children were among the casualties, authorities said at the time.

In April, a car bomb detonated outside a crowded restaurant in Baquba, killing 40 people and wounding another 75.

In Mosul, the capital of Nineveh, attacks also erupted Tuesday, an Interior Ministry official said.

Police opened fire on a suspected suicide bomber wearing an explosives vest near a police station, but the attacker detonated the bomb. Four civilians were killed, and five others were wounded.

A suicide car bomb also struck an army checkpoint, killing five people and wounding six others.

Also in Iraq on Tuesday, an Iranian-trained man suspected of overseeing a network of explosives experts and an al Qaeda in Iraq militant were seized, the U.S. military said.

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