Suicide bomber kills 16 Iraqi soldiers, wounds 50 people

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A suicide bomber walked up to Iraqi soldiers lining up for lunch at a base west of Baghdad on Thursday and set off his explosives belt, killing at least 16 troops and wounding 50, an Iraqi army officer said. The midday attack took place at the joint base shared by Iraqi soldiers and US troops in the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Habbaniyah, about 70 kilometers west of Baghdad, the officer said. The bomber approached a group of soldiers heading for a base canteen after their daily training and detonated his explosives near the entrance, the officer said in a telephone interview from the Habbaniyah base. He described the explosion as "thunderous, leaving bodies and pieces of human flesh scattered all over near the canteen."