Bombing Survivors Were Shot, Say Iraqis

RABIA, Iraq â€”  Some survivors of a suicide bombing that targeted Iraqi army recruits were shot immediately after the blast by U.S. and Iraqi soldiers who thought they were under attack, police, doctors and witnesses said Saturday.

The bomber had walked into a crowd of Iraqis waiting Friday to enlist in the army and detonated his explosives, said police and witnesses in this northern town near the Syrian border.

Believing they were under attack, U.S. and Iraqi troops opened fire, said Rabia’s police chief, Col. Yahya Shammari. He said some of the recruits were killed by the gunfire, although it was unclear how many because the dead and wounded were taken to several hospitals.

He said the toll from the suicide attack was 52 dead and 93 injured. Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility in a statement posted on the Internet.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry said that it was unaware of any shooting in connection with the bombing at Rabia and that all casualties were from the blast.

The U.S. military press office in Baghdad acknowledged receiving a query about the alleged shooting but said it had no information on it.

In Rabia, townspeople spoke of gunfire from U.S. and Iraqi soldiers after the blast. “Two of my relatives were wounded with bullets,� said Akram Zeidan, who lives near the site of the bombing. He pointed to walls that had hundreds of bullet holes.

In a nearby village where 14 of the victims were being treated, a doctor showed a reporter four bullets he had removed from some of the wounded. The doctor refused to allow his name to be published, fearing government reprisal.

In violence elsewhere in Iraq, a car bomb exploded near the National Theater in Baghdad’s Karrada district, killing seven people, including three policemen, police and witnesses said.

In another part of the capital, a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. convoy, hurling a Humvee off the highway. In Ramadi, a suicide bomber attacked a U.S. patrol, Iraqi police said. No U.S. casualties were reported in either attack.