WASHINGTON, Dec 23: The attack on a US Army canteen in Mosul, northern Iraq, that killed 13 American soldiers appears to have been the work of a suicide bomber, the chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, said on Wednesday.

"At this point, it looks like it was an improvised explosive device worn by an attacker," Myers told reporters at the Pentagon. "We have had a suicide bomber apparently strap something to his body ... and go into a dining hall," he said.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said investigators who have been rushed to the base reached that conclusion in recent hours following the Tuesday strike which killed a total of 22 people in the large canteen tent.

US President George W. Bush on Tuesday suggested the attack might have been cause by a rocket attack, although militants linked to Al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for the daring strike and suggested it was a suicide mission.

Myers said that the military would now investigate security at the base and how an attacker was able to gain access. -AFP