A suicide bomber attacked a military base in the Iraqi town of Taji on Monday, killing at least 19 people, in the latest assault by insurgents trying to undermine the government. In central Baghdad an explosion in a car park at Iraq's parliament killed at least one person and wounded several others, including a politician, security officials said.
The Taji bombing was the third major attack in the last five days and underscored the fragile state of security as Washington prepares to pull out its remaining 14,500 troops by the end of the year, nearly nine years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
The attacker detonated explosives packed into a minibus at the entrance to the base, which houses a jail holding prisoners from al Qaeda, the Mehdi Army militia and other groups, officials and security sources said. Taji is 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad.
"Today was the day for the prisoners to meet their families ... At the entrance, there was a minibus driven by a suicide bomber," said a duty officer at the jail. "It entered from the first checkpoint and before the police finished their search this guy drove quickly inside the base and blew it up." Baghdad's security operations centre said the blast killed 19 people, including 11 jail guards, and wounded 24 others. Two other people were missing, security sources said.
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