Baghdad, 18 July 2010: A suicide bomber has killed
at least 43 people and injured 40 more southwest of Baghdad, Iraqi police say. The
attack targeted government-backed Sunni militia members lining up to be paid in
the neighbourhood of Radwaniya.
The Sunni militia fighters, known as the Sahwa or
Awakening Councils, were once allied with al-Qaeda, but turned against the
militant group in 2006.
Among the dead were at least six soldiers and three
accountants, the Associated Press news agency reported. At least 13 soldiers
were also wounded, along with four accountants.
"There were more than 85 people lined up in
three lines at the main gate of the military base to receive salaries when a
person approached us," a survivor, 20-year-old Tayseer Mehsen, told the
Reuters news agency at Mahmudiya hospital. "When one of the soldiers tried
to stop him, he blew himself up."
The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Baghdad says the
Sahwa are credited with helping to reduce the overall levels of violence in
Iraq since they joined the US military and government forces in the fight
against al-Qaeda.
He says that the Sahwa have been increasinly
targeted by militants in recent months and have complained that their
state-support is evaporating.
The Sons of Iraq, as members of the militia are also
known, have recently reported cases of harassment from government troops as a
political vacuum continues following inconclusive elections in March.
Sunni insurgents have sought to exploit the deadlock
created by a failure of Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions to agree on a new
coalition government.
The two lists which won most seats are still
bickering over who should be the next prime minister.
Both former prime minister Iyad Allawi and incumbent
Nouri Maliki insist that they are best placed to lead the war-torn country.
There are fears that the political uncertainty could
hinder the planned withdrawal of all US combat troops from Iraq by the end of
August, in preparation for a full military departure by 2012.
In a second attack, a suicide bomber killed at least
three people and wounded six at a meeting of Sunni militia leaders in western
Iraq, police said. Reuters
