Six dead in Baghdad double bombing

At least six people were killed and 20 others injured today in a double bomb attack outside the Baghdad office of an Iraq government agency which cares for Sunni mosques and shrines, witnesses and a hospital official said.

In the initial attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at the entrance to the Sunni Endowment office in Baghdad’s northern Azamiyah district, witnesses and an army official said.

As people rushed away from the site, a second explosion – believed to have been caused by a roadside bomb – detonated just yards away.

The dead included Riyadh al-Samarrai, head of a local US-backed armed group, said the witness, who is an employee of the Sunni Endowment. His account was corroborated by a member of the armed group, who gave his name only as Abu Omar, and by an Iraqi army official.

Another witness, one of Mr al-Samarrai’s guards, said the suicide bomber walked up to Mr al-Samarrai – a former police colonel – and embraced him before detonating his explosives.

An official at Azamiyah’s al-Noaman hospital said six people had been killed and 20 wounded in the double bombing.

The US-backed groups – predominantly Sunni Arab fighters who turned against al Qaida and are known as “awakening councils” – have been credited with helping to reduce violence across Iraq by 60% since June. But they are increasingly becoming targets, with several recent bombings striking their offices and checkpoints.

In an audiotape released on December 29, Osama bin Laden warned Iraq’s Sunni Arabs against joining the groups or participating in any unity government.

US military spokesman Major General Kevin Bergner said last week that the attacks were the “clearest indication” that the foreign-led al-Qaida was worried about losing the support of its fellow Sunni Arabs.

A number of insurgent groups are thought to have switched allegiances and joined the Awakening movement. There are more than 70,000 men in about 300 such groups being bankrolled by the US around Iraq, and the number is expected to grow.