Bomb blasts mar Iraq Army Day holiday

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew himself up among soldiers and civilians celebrating Iraq's national Army Day holiday in central Baghdad on Sunday, killing 11 people in the latest in an upsurge of suicide attacks.

The bomber struck as an elderly man was placing flowers into the barrels of three Iraqi soldiers' rifles. He and the soldiers were among the casualties. Minutes before the blast soldiers had been dancing and chanting "Where is terrorism today?"

The attack was the worst in a series of bombings in the capital. Police said three people were killed in the northern district of Qahira when a car bomb blew up outside a restaurant. One person was killed in three blasts in central Nahda.

Three bombs exploded outside two Christian churches and a nuns' convent in the city of Mosul in the northern province of Nineveh, where U.S. commanders say al Qaeda is regrouping. Police said four people were wounded in the blasts.

While overall levels of violence in Iraq are down, U.S. military figures show that suicide bomb attacks have increased slightly since reaching a low in October.

Witnesses said the bomber, wearing an explosives vest, tried to gain access to the offices of the Iraqi Unity Gathering, a non-governmental group hosting an Army Day event for army officers, most of whom attended in civilian clothes.

Tribal leaders from both of Iraq's religious sects and clerics also attended the ceremony, marking the 87th anniversary of the formation of the first Iraqi army regiment, held in a house in a residential neighborhood in Karrada district.

Reuters television footage showed a group of soldiers dancing in a circle in the street, waving their AK-47 assault rifles in the air and chanting just minutes before the bomber struck.

An Interior Ministry official said four policemen, three soldiers and four civilians were killed and 17 wounded. A second police source put the death toll at eight.

The bomber attacked as people were leaving the NGO's offices and milling about outside. Security force members who had been standing guard appeared to have taken the brunt of the blast.

LUCKY ESCAPE

A Reuters cameraman, who was less than 10 meters (yards) away when the bomb exploded, saw soldiers dragging away several lifeless uniformed bodies and AK-47s lying scattered nearby.

"I was interviewing a cleric when a huge explosion rocked the whole street. I was luckily protected by a wall from the force of the blast but I kept filming the havoc it caused," said Reuters cameraman Salem al-Uraibi.

Reuters photographer Mohammed Ameen was taking pictures of an elderly resident placing flowers into the barrels of three soldiers' rifles when he was rocked by a thunderous bang.

When he looked again the three soldiers and the old man lay motionless on the ground. Ameen was slightly wounded in the leg.

The head of the Iraqi Unity Gathering, Yassin al-Hashemi, said its aim was to promote reconciliation between Iraq's religious sects and ethnic groups.

"The terrorists and al Qaeda ... are targeting all the good people of this country. But we are going forward to achieve our goals and to support the government in its reconciliation projects," Hashemi said.

A suicide bomber killed 34 people at a funeral in Baghdad on New Year's Day in the worst attack in the capital in six months.

The U.S. military blames such attacks on al Qaeda, which it accuses of trying to reignite sectarian violence between majority Shi'ite and minority Sunni Muslims.

A series of offensives by U.S. and Iraqi troops since June 2007 has largely pushed al Qaeda out of Baghdad, forcing them to move northwards into Nineveh and Salahuddin provinces.

U.S. commanders say al Qaeda sees mainly Sunni, U.S.-backed neighborhood patrols, which were created last year under the auspices of so-called tribal Awakening Councils, as a threat and is increasingly targeting them.

Police said the leader of the Awakening Council in Baghdad's Shaab district was shot dead outside his home on Sunday.

Police also reported the discovery of 12 bodies around Baghdad on Saturday, four times the number they have been reporting in recent months. Such killings were normally associated with sectarian death squads.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Ameen, Salem al-Uraibi and Aws Qusay)