Baghdad ? A suicide bomber rode his bicycle into a crowd of police recruits in Baqouba on Monday, killing at least 29 people in a province that has become a battleground among U.S. forces, al-Qaida militants and Shiite radicals.

Police and hospital officials reported at least 19 people wounded in the attack in Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Mohammed al-Kirrawi, a doctor at the Baqouba general hospital, said most of the victims were struck by ball bearings packed in the bomber’s suicide vest and that the hospital lacked equipment to save many of the wounded.

A group of Shiite and Sunni clerics, meanwhile, were rescued one day after they were kidnapped in the capital after meeting with the government to discuss how to coordinate efforts against al-Qaida in Iraq.

In a reflection of the extraordinary complexity of Iraq, the U.S. military blamed a Shiite militant for the kidnapping, in which one of the sheiks was said to have been killed.