BAGHDAD, Feb 10: A suicide car-bomb killed 33 people in Iraq on Sunday, a security official said, hours before US Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Baghdad to assess recent security gains and discuss troop levels.

The bomber struck a checkpoint outside a crowded market near the town of Balad in the country’s north, said Colonel Hamadi Atshan, a spokesman for Iraqi security forces in the area.

The checkpoint was run by volunteers who have joined US forces to fight Al Qaeda, Atshan said, adding women and children were among those killed in one of the worst attacks in Iraq this year. The US military put the death toll at 23.

“There was a big explosion near the checkpoint. I saw blood, clothes, children’s shoes and other personal things strewn on the ground,” said Mustafa Kamal, a member of the volunteer security force and who was wounded in the attack.

Gates told reporters he would discuss troop levels with the US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus.

Gen Petraeus is expected to testify to the US Congress in April about possible further cuts in American forces in Iraq should recent drops in violence be sustained.

“I will obviously be interested in hearing from General Petraeus about his evaluation -- where he stands and what more work he feels he needs to do before he’s ready to come back with his recommendations,” Gates said.

Gates is visiting Baghdad a year after a US-Iraqi security offensive was launched with the aid of an extra 30,000 US troops to halt the country’s slide into all-out sectarian war.—Reuters