BAGHDAD: An Al-Qaeda group on Friday claimed it was behind a suicide bombing on a crowded Iraqi army recruitment centre in Baghdad that killed 59 people in the deadliest attack this year, US monitors said.

The Islamic State of Iraq said Tuesday`s attack, which coincided with the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, "struck a group of Shiites and `apostates` who sold their faith for money and to be a tool in the war on Iraqi Sunnis," according to the SITE group which monitors Islamist websites.

The attack, which also wounded at least 100 people, came a day after Iraq`s two main political parties suspended talks over the formation of a new government and ahead of the withdrawal of the final US combat unit from the country.

Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim Atta had already blamed the attack on Al-Qaeda.

"The fingerprints of Al-Qaeda are very clear in this attack," Atta said on Tuesday. "You can see it in the timing, the circumstances, the target and the style of the attack -- all the information indicates it was Al-Qaeda behind this."

BDST: 11:01 HRS, August 20, 2010