AT LEAST 19 PEOPLE have been killed after a suicide bomber slammed a car, packed with explosives, into the gate of a prison north of Baghdad.

The bombing in the town of Taji, about 12 miles north of the capital, is the third major attack in about a week in Iraq – and raises questions about the ability of the nation’s security forces to protect the country after US troops leave in just over a month.

A senior Iraqi security official warned that even more attacks may be in the offing ahead of the American withdrawal.

The attacker struck the main gate of al-Hout prison at 8am local time, when many employees and guards were on their way to work, a police officer said.

Ten policemen were among the dead and the rest were civilians, the officer added. At least 22 people were wounded.

Police officials said the death toll was raised after cleanup crews found more bodies while removing debris at the site. Two health officials in nearby hospitals confirmed the causality figures.

Guards and policemen fired into the air to disperse the crowds after the explosion, fearing a second blast, said policeman Hisham Ahmed.

“Our patrol rushed to the explosion site. There was smoke and fire all around the place. I saw bodies of four policemen on the ground and scattered flesh,” he said. “Women were among the wounded.”

Security forces set up a cordon around the prison to prevent any escape attempt by the inmates.

Al-Qaeda hallmarks

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the prison attack, but suicide bombings generally are a hallmark of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The military spokesman for Baghdad, Qassim al-Moussawi, said that the aim of the latest attacks across the country was to “negatively affect the moral” of the Iraqi security forces. He said he was expecting more attacks by insurgents ahead of the US withdrawal.

“We have information that terrorist groups are planning to intensify their activities, and they are mobilising all their capabilities to increase attacks for the rest of the year,” he said.

Violence has ebbed across Iraq since the height of the fighting, but deadly bombings and shootings still occur almost daily as US troops prepare to leave at the end of December.

Last Saturday a string of explosions hit a market in Baghdad and an area on the city’s western outskirts, killing at least 15 people. Three days earlier, a triple bombing in the southern city of Basra killed 19.

Iraqi security officials maintain that they are fully prepared for the American withdrawal, which is required under a 2008 security pact between the US and Iraq.

About 15,000 US troops are still in the country, down from a one-time high of about 170,000. All of those troops will be out of the country by the end of December.

But many Iraqis are concerned that insurgents may use the transition period to launch more attacks in a bid to regain their former prominence and destabilise the country.