DUBAI - The group of Al-Qaeda's frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has claimed responsibility for a triple suicide bomb attack which killed six people, according to hospital figures, at an army base in northwestern Iraq on Saturday.
In an internet message, Zarqawi's Al-Qaeda in Mesopatamia group said that a suicide bomber driving "a car filled with mines" triggered an explosion at the first checkpoint of the Sinjar army base 420 kilometres (260 miles) northeast of the Iraqi capital.
The message, posted on an internet site, the authenticity of which could not be verified, added that a second suicide bomber had followed, then a third who was able to explode his vehicle "in the middle of a crowd which gathered around him".
The triple attack "killed more than 40 people including Crusaders and apostates, while more than 80 other people were wounded," the message continued.
Hospital sources put the death toll at six with 58 wounded.
Meanwhile in the latest of a series of conflicting reports about the health of Zarqawi, a new Internet message said the Al-Qaeda operative was in good condition and leading rebel operations.
Zarqawi, believed to be behind many of the deadliest attacks and hostage killings in the country, was said by another Islamist group to be in good health following reports he had been wounded.
"Our leader is in good health. He is directing the jihadist (holy war) operations and has been following the details right up to the time that this statement was drafted," said a statement signed Friday by Abu Maisara al-Iraqi of the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Land of Two Rivers.
That was the same name used on Tuesday to announce that the Jordanian-born Zarqawi, who has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head, had been wounded.
In the northwest, around 1,000 US and Iraqi troops pursued an operation in the Euphrates Valley town of Haditha to try to root out insurgents loyal to Zarqawi who had escaped an earlier sweep near the Syrian border.
05/28/2005 23:30 GMT