Suicide bomber kills 23 Iraqi army recruits

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 23 Iraqi army recruits and wounded 36 in Baghdad on Thursday, officials said, in an attack on men volunteering to join the government's struggle to crush al Qaeda-linked militants in Anbar province.

Brigadier General Saad Maan, spokesman for the Baghdad Security Operations Centre, said the bomber blew himself up among the recruits at the small Muthanna airfield, used by the army in the capital. Maan put the death toll at 22 but health ministry officials said morgue records showed 23 had died.