Bombing at an Iraqi army base in Baghdad kills 12, injures at least 20
Just five days after the United States declared the end of its combat mission in Iraq, U.S. soldiers opened fire Sunday morning on suicide bombers who snuck into an Iraqi army base in Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman said.
The assailants detonated a car bomb outside an army division headquarters housed in the former defense ministry building, killing at least 12 people, most of them Iraqi soldiers, authorities said. The blast wounded at least 20 people at the complex, where a bombing last month targeting recruits killed more than 60 people.
A gun battle raged for more than two hours after the explosion as Iraqi soldiers tried to corral the two bombers who managed to get inside the base, Iraqi officials at the scene said. A small contingent of U.S. soldiers is based at the facility.
The assailants, who wore vests rigged with explosives, threw grenades as Iraqi soldiers shot at them from a distance, fearing that their bullets could detonate the bombs. American soldiers backed them up with “suppressive fire,” said Lt. Col. Eric Bloom, the U.S. military spokesman. U.S. helicopters, drones and explosives experts also responded.