Iraq Watch: September 28, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In the first known insurgent attack of its kind a female suicide bomber, disguised as a man, blew herself up at an Iraqi army recruiting center in the town of Tal Afar in northern Iraq killing at least six people and wounded more than 35 others.

The unprecedented bombing was claimed by the terrorist group al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, through a statement posted on the Internet.

In a separate suicide attack Wednesday, a suicide car bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into an Iraqi police patrol in Baqouba killing one person and injuring at least 14 more, including 10 Iraqi police.

Elsewhere, the U.S. military announced the deaths of three service members. One soldier was killed and another wounded in an IED blast this morning near the southern city of Safwan. Another soldier was killed yesterday by small-arms fire while conducting combat operations near Ar Ramadi. The other service member died from a non-hostile gunshot wound Monday near Fallujah.

At least seven bodies were found in Baghdad's northwestern Shula district on Wednesday. All the victims had been bound and shot in the head.

In Taji, north of the capital, seven more bodies were discovered by Iraqi police.

To the south in the holy city of Najaf, a bomb exploded outside the house of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's chief bodyguard, Kassim al-Mansouri. At least six people were killed and eight wounded in the blast.