A bomber has blown himself up among a group of Iraqi army recruits in northern Iraq, killing 25 people and wounding 35.
Police said the attack occurred on Friday outside a municipal building in Rabia, a town 80km northwest of Mosul, close to the Syrian border.
Officials said the attack occurred in the midst of recruits who were undergoing training in a security controlled area and that some of the guards might have knowingly allowed the attacker to enter.
"An initial toll put the number of those killed at 25 and the number of those wounded at 35," said police general Said al-Juburi, speaking from Mosul.
The victims were young men waiting to sign up to join the army.
The attack occurred as the United States has placed new urgency on the training of Iraqi soldiers and police in the hope that they can assume greater security responsibility so US and other foreign troops can begin going home next year.
Police and army recruits are frequently targeted by armed groups.
Common target
In recent months, attacks by bombers strapped with explosives, as opposed to driving explosives-laden cars, have become more common.
Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, and areas to its west have been a focus of armed attacks over the past year.
US forces believe armed groups have been flowing into Iraq across the border from Syria.
Many of the attacks in and around Mosul in the past have been claimed by al-Qaida in Iraq, a group headed by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and allied to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.