Iraqi authorities say a suicide bomber has killed at least 20 people at a police recruiting center in the western city of Fallujah.
Officials say the bomber walked up to a group of people waiting in a line at the recruitment center and detonated his explosives. The U.S. military gave a lower death toll, saying that one Iraqi policeman was killed and eight people were wounded in the blast.
Insurgents frequently target recruitment centers for Iraqi security forces.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military says coalition forces detained three suspected terrorists during operations Thursday in Baghdad's Shi'ite neighborhood of Sadr City and elsewhere in Iraq.
In other developments, the U.S. State Department says two Iraqi employees of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad are missing. Spokesman Tom Casey says U.S. and Iraqi authorities are trying to determine what happened to them.
And the U.S. military said a roadside bomb killed two U.S. soldiers in Baghdad Wednesday. The U.S. Defense Department attributes this month's high U.S. death toll in Iraq to the increased pace of American military operations.
The U.S. military said another American soldier died of wounds sustained in an attack Tuesday. At least 118 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq so far in May, making it one of the deadliest months of the war for U.S. forces.
The U.S. military says all 20,000 additional combat troops that President Bush ordered to Iraq have now arrived.
In other news, President Bush is to meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani at the White House today.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
