Two suicide bombers kill 22 at Iraq army base
At least 55 people were also wounded in the dual bomb attack that took place at around 8:30 am (0530 GMT) at the Al Saad base east of the city of Baquba in the restive province of Diyala, a security official said.
He said the two bombers, one of them dressed in an Iraqi military uniform, detonated their explosives-filled vests at a recruitment centre at the base where young men had arrived to join the army.
The attack came ahead of an expected new crackdown by Iraq forces against Al Qaeda in a bid to gain control of the volatile region.
The US military also confirmed the attack but gave a lower death toll, saying 16 Iraqi police recruits were killed and 30 others wounded.
"We were about 30 people standing at the entrance," said Falah Ali Hussein, 17, who was wounded in the attack.
"They had just called our names when suddenly there was a big explosion," said the teenager from the nearby town of Dalli Abbas, who was wounded in his leg, back and head.
A local police officer said the victims were from a first batch of men who had been called from across the province to participate in a military recruitment drive.
"The bombers blew themselves up amid the crowd. One bomber was dressed in Iraqi military uniform, while the other was wearing civilian clothes," the officer said.
He said the base housed some US troops but the US military said it did not suffer any casualties in the attack.
The death toll of 22 was confirmed by Doctor Ahmed Alwan from Baquba hospital.
Diyala and its capital Baquba remain one of the most dangerous areas of Iraq with frequent suicide attacks, including several carried out by female bombers, and car bombings.
"Very soon there will be a big operation by our security forces in Diyala," interior ministry spokesman Major General Abul Karim Khalaf told reporters on Sunday without giving a specific timeframe.
"There will be fighting. It is going to be tough."
In January, Iraqi and US troops launched "Operation Iron Harvest" in Diyala aimed at running Al-Qaeda out of long-held strongholds.
One of the major successes of that operation was the wresting of control of the "breadbasket" farmlands surrounding the town of Muqdadiyah, which the extremists had tightly controlled for more than a year.
However, Al Qaeda still maintains a grip on other parts of the province despite numerous subsequent operations by US and Iraqi forces.
Since 2006 when the sectarian conflict erupted in Iraq, Diyala witnessed some of the most brutal killings between gangs from the rival communities.
Tuesday's attack was the third deadliest in less than a month and comes at a time when the US military claims that the overall violence in the country has fallen to a four-year low.
On June 17, a car bomb had killed 51 people and wounded dozens more in a market in Baghdad and on June 27 a suicide bomber killed 25 people in western Iraq's Anbar province, including three US marines.
The US military's claims of a drop in violence has facilitated the withdrawal of the last of the extra five brigades of troops it sent in 2007 as part of the "surge" to quell the bloodshed.
Iraq has seen a downward trend in violence since the middle of last year, but bloodshed spiked in March and April on the back of fierce clashes between Shiite militiamen and coalition security forces.
At least 1,073 Iraqis were killed across the country in April, most of them in the fighting with militiamen which began in the southern port city of Basra and spread to several Shiite regions of the country.
Iraq's Electricity Minister Karim Wahid, meanwhile, escaped a roadside bomb attack in eastern Baghdad which wounded three of his bodyguards, security officials said.