Blast kills at least 35

Three U.S. soldiers were killed in a rocket attack Wednesday.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A sport-utility vehicle packed with artillery shells blew up in a crowd of people waiting to volunteer for the Iraqi military, killing at least 35 and wounding 138 today in the deadliest attack in months.
The blast scattered bodies and debris across a four-lane highway outside Baghdad's Muthanna airport, which is used as a base by both the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps and the U.S. military. The explosion could be heard for miles and sent a cloud of smoke over the city.
No American or Iraqi troops were injured, U.S. Army Col. Mike Murray said.
Victims
Many of the victims had just gotten off a bus about 9 a.m., Murray said. About 100 volunteers were trying to enter the recruiting center when the sport-utility vehicle crashed into the crowd, said Capt. Hani Hussein of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps.
"We were standing, waiting for our turn to register," Rafid Mudhar told The Associated Press from his hospital bed in Karama Hospital. "All of a sudden, we heard a big explosion and most of those standing fell on the ground, including me."
He said he was unconscious for a while, then managed to reach a nearby ambulance.
Bloody bodies covered in dust were scattered around the blast site. One dead man lay prostrate in the center of a highway median.
Iraqi security forces tried to help the injured as blood-soaked victims were loaded into ambulances and cars. U.S. troops milled around the scene.
At least one artillery shell could be seen lying on the road. Insurgents in Iraq often fashion bombs out of artillery shells and other military ordnance.
Health Ministry official Saad al-Amili said at least 35 people died and 138 were injured, and that the toll was likely to increase.
The bombing was the bloodiest single attack since a car bomb killed 47 people Feb. 11, also outside an army recruiting center in Baghdad.
It was the latest in a series of attacks on U.S. coalition forces and their Iraqi allies as the Americans prepare to hand over sovereignty June 30. Coalition authorities have warned that attacks by insurgents could escalate in the weeks leading to the transfer.
Officials respond
Surrounded by Western security guards and Iraqi police, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi visited the scene of today's blast and described it as a "cowardly attack."
"We are going to face these escalations," he said. "The Iraqi people are going to prevail, and the government of Iraq is determined to go ahead in confronting the enemies, whether they are here in Iraq or whether they are anywhere else in the world."
Yas Khudair, a member of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, said all the victims were "poor people" who "wanted to volunteer to support their families."
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the string of recent attacks would not affect the hand over of sovereignty.
"The terrorists used to justify their terror, saying it was against the occupation. The occupation is going to end in 12 days time; now the terrorists appear to be trying to stop the transfer of power to the Iraqi people themselves.
"We and the Iraqi people will not be deterred. The transfer of power will take place. Iraqis will take control of their lives."
More violence
In other violence, a rocket slammed into a U.S. logistics base near Balad, Iraq, on Wednesday, killing three U.S. soldiers and wounding 25 other people, including two civilian workers.
An explosion before dawn Wednesday damaged a pipeline carrying crude oil from Iraq's southern fields to the Basra oil terminal in the Persian Gulf. Iraqi engineers had diverted crude shipments to that pipeline after another was bombed two days ago.
Insurgents also killed Ghazi Talabani, the official in charge of protecting the northern oil fields, in an ambush in Kirkuk. Gen. Anwar Amin of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps said three gunmen attacked Talabani's car after his bodyguard briefly left the vehicle in a crowded market.
The bodyguard was wounded. Talabani was the third Iraqi official slain since Saturday.
"What you are seeing here is effectively a terrorist war against Iraq's critical infrastructure, including the oil infrastructure," coalition spokesman Dan Senor told CNN. "It is an effort to basically, economically, impoverish the Iraqi people."
President Bush, in a speech beamed live to U.S. forces worldwide, said democracy was being born in Iraq despite the killings and pipeline attacks.
"We have come not to conquer, but to liberate people, and we will stand with them until their freedom is secure," Bush told several thousand troops at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., home of the U.S. Central Command.
Ordered to leave
Elsewhere, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his militiamen to leave the holy cities of Najaf and Kufa unless they live there.
The order is a major step toward ending the uprising al-Sadr launched in April after the coalition closed his newspaper, arrested a top aide and issued an arrest warrant for him in the 2003 murder of a rival cleric. Hundreds died in the uprising. Skirmishes continue between U.S. troops and al-Sadr's followers in Baghdad's Sadr City.