Mosul - Suicide bombers targeted police in northern Iraq on Thursday, killing 20 people in two attacks, just as the United States military announced the withdrawal of several thousand troops citing a drop in violence.
In the bloodiest strike, a bomber in an explosives-packed jacket blew himself up at a recruitment centre in the town of Sinjar, on the road to Syria from the main northern city of Mosul.
Seventeen people were killed and 30 wounded, hospital sources said.
Interior ministry spokesperson Major General Abdul Kareem Khalaf told reporters that the bomber targeted a centre that recruited personnel for the police and security services in the area.
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The mountains around Sinjar are a major centre of Iraq's non-Muslim Yazidi Kurdish community and saw the single deadliest attack since the US-led invasion of 2003.
On August 14 last year, four suicide bombers blew up lorries in two Yazidi villages near Sinjar, killing more than 400 people.
Only hours before Thursday's attack in Sinjar, a suicide bomber drove into a group of police officers and detonated his explosives in Al-Gabat, a village north of Mosul, police Captain Aziz Imara told reporters.
Three people, including two policemen, were killed and 12 people wounded, he said, adding that the blast had also damaged nearby shops and restaurants.
Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, is regarded by the American military as the last urban bastion of al-Qaeda in the country and Iraqi and US forces have been conducting a major crackdown against jihadists in the area since May 14.
The US military earlier announced the withdrawal next month of another 4 000 "surge" troops from Iraq after reporting that violence across the country had hit a four-year low.
It is the fourth brigade to withdraw from Iraq out of five that deployed under the controversial surge in US troop numbers in February 2007 which saw an extra 30 000 soldiers poured in to curb sectarian violence.
"The brigade played an integral role in establishing the conditions for long-term security in Iraq by reducing violence in Diyala province by 70 percent," the military said in a statement.
US officials said on Sunday that Iraq was seeing the lowest level of violence across Iraq in four years, but gave no casualty figures.
Figures maintained by the independent website www.icasualties.org show that the US death toll so far this month was 19, the lowest average since the US-led invasion of March 2003.
Total US losses in Iraq since the invasion stand at 4 084, according to the website.
Washington has said it wants to complete the withdrawal of the 30 000 surge troops by July and have a 45-day evaluation period before considering the overall level of its forces.
Earlier this month, the Americans said they had 152 500 troops deployed across Iraq together with an estimated 10 000 troops from other countries contributing to the US-led coalition.
US military spokesperson Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll said violent incidents had declined 70 percent since the "surge".
"Iraqi-wide we have seen a significant reduction in violence in the past week," Driscoll said on Sunday. "Security incidents decreased to a level not seen since March 2004."
However, he cautioned that al-Qaeda still posed a serious challenge to American and Iraqi security forces and had the ability to stage deadly suicide bombings and fuel sectarian clashes.
US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker has said he has seen a steady improvement in the situation in Iraq, with local police and security forces better able to take control of the situation and deal with insurgents.
Crocker opened two provincial reconstruction offices in the Shi'a shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala over the weekend and called for faster rebuilding saying the security situation had made it possible.
Meanwhile, Iraq's international backers are meeting in Stockholm to take stock of reconstruction and development in the country.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is hosting the conference alongside UN chief Ban Ki-moon with the hope of winning debt forgiveness, a cut in war reparations and a bigger slice of foreign aid to rebuild his ravaged nation.
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