KIRKUK, Iraq, 15 June 2005 — Iraqi violence killed at least 40 people yesterday as Kurds in the autonomous north swore in former rebel leader Masoud Barzani as their first president. The US military said a rocket-propelled grenade killed one soldier and wounded two more in Baghdad, bringing US military deaths since the 2003 invasion to 1,698, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures. Two other US soldiers were killed Monday in a roadside bomb attack in the restive city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, the military said.

In the deadliest attack yesterday, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of civil servants waiting for paychecks at a branch of Al-Rafidain bank in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, killing at least 20 people, police said. Another 81 were wounded.

A statement posted on the Internet in the name of the Al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Al-Sunna group said it carried out the attack against the “infidel” police. It warned potential recruits: “We will follow you everywhere, whether you are wearing military fatigues or civilian clothes.”

Kirkuk police chief Maj. Gen. Turhan Yusif said a suicide bomber blew himself up in a queue at Al-Rafidain bank in the city center. “Most of the casualties were civil servants lining up outside the bank to receive their monthly pay,” said Col. Shirzad Abdullah, chief of Rahimao police station.

North of Baghdad, a car bomb killed 10 more Iraqis, including two children, and wounded seven, according to security and hospital sources. The troops had been called in to reinforce a police station in the town of Kanaan that was under mortar attack, and were hit by a car bomb parked nearby, a police officer said.

In Arbil, Barzani, son of the Kurdish nationalist hero Mulla Mustafa Barzani, took the oath of office as Kurdish president before the 111-member regional assembly.

“I promise to safeguard the accomplishments of Kurdistan and to carry out my duties faithfully,” Barzani told the gathering which included President Jalal Talabani, who headed a rival Kurdish rebel group.

Talabani congratulated his old rival, and said in Arabic before repeating in Kurdish: “Ahead of us is the task of building a unified, pluralistic, democratic and federal Iraq. We believe Kurdistan’s democratic experience can serve as a model.” The Kurdish Parliament represents three provinces in the north of Iraq and sits in Arbil.

In Baghdad, the Iraqi court set up to try Saddam Hussein released a video that showed the deposed dictator answering questions. Judge Raed Al-Juhi, a member of the Iraqi Special Tribunal, questioned a bearded, seemingly weary Saddam about the 1982 killing of 143 residents of Dujail, a Shiite village northeast of Baghdad.

Saddam, who has been in US custody since his capture in December 2003, is accused of ordering revenge murders after villagers allegedly tried to assassinate him. He is accused of a litany of other crimes against humanity and could face the death penalty if convicted. Four Saddam lieutenants, including his cousin Muzahim Al-Tikriti, faced questions from an investigating judge about the “Anfal” (spoils) offensive against Kurds, including an attack on the village of Halabja, and the 1991 repression of Shiites in southern Iraq, according to separate footage obtained by AFP.

Meanwhile, according to a Jane’s Defense Weekly report yesterday, Turkey and the United States are cooperating increasingly closely in Iraq, repairing tensions caused by the US-led invasion of Turkey’s southern neighbor. The report came as the Foreign Ministry in Ankara said Turkey and the United States had signed an agreement to cooperate in preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction and controlling the illegal trade of dual-use materials and technology.

The respected London-based publication said Turkey would soon start training Iraqi army officers and had offered its military depots to maintain US helicopters and armored vehicles used in Iraq.

Ankara harbored grave reservations about the March 2003 Iraq war, notably the effect it would have on groups fighting for autonomy for the predominantly Kurdish southeastern parts of Turkey.