Bombs killed at least nine Iraqis on Tuesday, including two leaders of government-backed Sunni militias that have fought al-Qaeda in Iraq, officials said.
Members of so-called Awakening Councils, which have been key to a sharp drop in violence in recent years, frequently have been targeted by insurgents, along with government officials and others seen as allied with US-led efforts to stabilize the country.
The violence began on Tuesday with an 8am roadside bomb in the mainly Sunni area of Dora, a former insurgent stronghold in southern Baghdad, that was aimed at a convoy of a senior Iraqi transportation ministry official but missed its target and killed two bystanders.
Abdullah Loaebi, the director-general of the ministry’s private transportation department, was unharmed, but police and hospital officials said that along with the two killed, eight others were wounded.
In Diyala province, north of Baghdad, bombs attached to cars belonging to members of an anti-al-Qaeda Sunni group killed two of its leaders in separate attacks.
Major Ghalib al-Karkhi, Diyala’s police spokesman, said the blasts killed the chiefs of the Awakening Council in southern Baqouba and in a village near Buhriz, a former Saddam Hussein stronghold about 60km north of Baghdad.
A few hours later, another blast killed a vocal al-Qaeda critic as he was driving his car in Fallujah, about 65km west of Baghdad. Police and hospitals officials said the bomb stuck to Najim Abid al-Issawi’s car also wounded his passenger.
Al-Qaeda militants are believed to have killed al-Issawi’s two brothers.
Also in Baqouba, Diyala’s capital, a motorcycle bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol wounded eight civilians. In Baghdad, a roadside bomb struck near the office of a Shiite religious party, wounding 10 people, including eight guards, according to police and hospital reports.
Bombs attached to cars also killed four people, including a 5-year-old girl, in separate attacks in Baghdad and the northern city of Mosul, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.
The number of attacks has declined sharply since local tribal leaders revolted against al-Qaeda in Iraq and formed Awakening Councils in late 2006 and 2007.
However, fears are high that frustration over a political deadlock following the March 7 parliamentary elections could stoke new violence.
Baghdad has seen a series of high profile bombings since August last year that have killed hundreds of people and raised questions about the preparedness of Iraq’s security forces to take over from the US.
Anger against the government also has been on the rise, as officials continue to dither over naming Iraq’s next leaders amid sorely lacking public services. Protests over electricity shortages in Iraq’s sweltering south continued on Tuesday, prompting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to promise to make power needs a top government priority.
“I understand the issue of powers shortages, but we should not politicize these demonstrations,” al-Maliki told reporters in Baghdad, several hours after a protest in Karbala ended peacefully.
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