(Adds background) BAGHDAD, June 8 (Reuters) - An explosion killed at least four Iraqi police recruits and wounded 23 others in Baghdad on Sunday, police said. The recruits were gathered at a police recruiting centre in western Baghdad when they came under attack. There were conflicting police reports on the cause of the blast. One police source said it was a mortar round. Another said it was a roadside bomb. Two other roadside bombs targeting police patrols in different parts of the capital on Sunday wounded four policemen and five civilians, police said. Thousands of police and police recruits have been killed in attacks across Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, many of them targets of Sunni Arab insurgents. Violence has declined following President George W. Bush's decision to send 30,000 extra troops to Iraq, a rebellion by Sunni tribal leaders against al Qaeda insurgents and a ceasefire ordered by anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Figures released by the U.S. military last month showed violence in Iraq had fallen to its lowest level in more than four years, while U.S. troop deaths in Iraq fell to 19 in May, their lowest since the 2003 invasion. Baghdad has been relatively calm since 10,000 Iraqi government troops entered the capital's sprawling slum of Sadr City unopposed on May 20 under a truce between Sadr's supporters and ruling Shi'ite political parties that ended weeks of fighting in which hundreds were killed. Since then, Iraqi troops have seized a large quantity of weapons, including 295 mortar rounds, 367 AK-47s assault rifles, 109 anti-tank mines, 39 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and an anti-aircraft gun, according to the U.S. military. In the southern city of Basra, where Iraqi forces have also taken control, more than 10 rockets landed early on Sunday near Basra airport, where some 4,000 British soldiers are based, British military spokesman Captain Chris Ford said. No one was injured, he said. (Reporting by Aseel Kami)
U.S. Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a Multi National Force - Iraq (MNF-I) spokesman, speaks to the media during a news conference at the International Zone in Baghdad June 4, 2008. REUTERS/Eduardo ...
