The explosion set many cars ablaze, a source at the scene said. AL ARABIYA – AGENCIES
A suicide car bomber killed 15 people and wounded 21 in an attack at a checkpoint near a police training academy in northeastern Baghdad, police and hospital sources said on Sunday. The explosion set many cars ablaze, a source at the scene said. Earlier death toll was set at seven people killed, among them four police informants, a policeman and two anti-Qaeda militiamen, and wounded four others, security officials said. “A group of suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen attacked a house in the center of Baquba around 7:30 am (0430 GMT),” a major in the police in Baquba, 60 kilometers (37.5 miles) north of Baghdad, told AFP. “The attackers killed three women and one man from one family inside the house,” the major said, adding that they were all police informants. Unknown gunmen in a civilian car also attacked a checkpoint manned by police and anti-Qaeda Sahwa (Awakening) militia members in Abu Khamis, north of Baquba, killing one policeman and two Sahwa members, a police lieutenant colonel from Diyala province said. Two Sahwa members were wounded in the attack, he said. And two more Sahwa members were wounded by a roadside bomb near Samarra, 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of Baghdad, a lieutenant colonel in the Samarra police said. The Sahwa are made up of Sunni tribesmen who joined forces with the US military against Qaeda from late 2006, helping turn the tide of the insurgency. Violence in Iraq is down from its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common, killing 151 people in January.
