Iraq Watch: November 10, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In the deadliest attack inside Baghdad's city limits in recent weeks, a suicide bomber targeted a restaurant frequented by Iraqi security personnel Thursday morning killing at least 35 Iraqis and wounding 25 others.

28 year-old Uday Mohammed, a worker at the Qadouri restaurant, said the bomber blew himself up the moment he entered the popular eatery located along Abu Nuwas Street. Crying, Mohammed rhetorically asked, "Where should we go? Where should we flee? This is hell all over us."

Al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the central Baghdad bombing through a statement posted on the Internet.

The terrorist group also said it was behind yesterday's suicide bombings in Amman, Jordan which killed at least 56 people.

Also in Baghdad, two city council employees were gunned down by insurgents in the capital's western Ghazaliya neighborhood.

Separately, a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle near an Iraqi army recruiting center in Tikrit, 80 miles north of the capital, killing seven and injuring 13.

Elsewhere, the executed bodies of some 27 people were discovered near Jassan, located on the Iranian border. The unidentified victims were all found bound, blindfolded, and shot in the head.