The United States began to reduce its troop strength in Iraq, from just under 60,000 at the time of this bombing, to about 50,000 by 31 August, which was scheduled to be the formal end of combat operations.
[6] Unemployed people had queued for hours outside an Army recruiting centre when a suicide bomber approached and detonated his explosives.
[7] The recruiting location is near the Bab al-Muadhan (Great Gate) by the Tigris River and the former Iraqi Ministry of Defense building in downtown Baghdad.
A bomb attached to a fuel truck loaded with kerosene exploded, killing eight people and wounding 44 more.
[2] Islamic State of Iraq, which includes al-Qaida in Iraq, within three days claimed the first of the two attacks, saying it targeted "a group of Shias and apostates who sold their faith for money and to be a tool in the war on Iraqi Sunnis",[3] and boasting that its operative easily passed through checkpoints before detonating his explosives belt in a crowd of officers and recruits outside army headquarters.