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Suicide bomber kills 9 Sunni militiamen in Iraq

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-11 22:00

Members of "Awakening Council", a local neighbourhood guard unit, wait for medical treatment in a hospital after a bomb attack in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad April 11, 2009. [Agencies]

ISKANDARIYA - A suicide bomber targeted a group of Sunni Arab militiamen queuing to collect pay cheques at an Iraqi army post south of Baghdad, killing 9 and wounding 31 on Saturday, police said.

The US-sponsored Sunni patrolmen, or Sahwas, helped cut violence in Iraq after they turned on al Qaeda and other insurgent groups although ties between them and the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad have been strained in recent weeks by the arrest of Sahwa leaders.

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The violence unleashed by the US-led invasion six years ago has fallen dramatically across Iraq over the past 18 months but insurgents continue to carry out frequent car and suicide bomb attacks. Suicide bombings are a hallmark of al Qaeda.

The attack took place in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of the Iraqi capital, which was once part of an area known as the "Triangle of Death" where Sunni Islamist extremists frequently attacked Shi'ite Muslims.

The militiamen were waiting to get overdue pay cheques from the authorities. Delays in paying the Sahwas, also known as "Awakening Councils," have contributed to tensions between them and the government.

"The Sahwa men were preparing to enter the military post to receive their salaries when a suicide bomber managed to blow himself up among them, killing nine of them," said police colonel Ali al-Zahawi, head of Iskandariya police.

At a local hospital, survivors were carried in on bloodstained stretchers, screaming in pain.

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