A suicide bomber targeting anti-Qaeda militiamen killed 43 people west of Baghdad in Iraq's deadliest single attack in more than two months.
Forty people were also wounded in bombing in the predominantly Sunni Arab district of Radwaniyah, 25 kilometres from Baghdad. The fighters from the Sahwa militia were queuing outside an army base to receive their wages when the bomber struck.
Recruited from among Sunni Arab tribesmen, the Sahwa militia is credited with turning the tide in the war against Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Also known as the sons of Iraq, the group took up arms against the Jihadists with us backing in late 2006 and has since been on the receiving end of repeated retaliatory attacks. A second suicide bombing targeted the militia in the town of Al-Qaim close to the Syrian border. The bomber blew himself up in a Sahwa office in the town killing two militiamen and a policeman, and wounding six other people. In a third attack, a magnetic bomb placed on a civilian vehicle killed one person and wounded three in Ur, a neighbourhood of east Baghdad. Meanwhile, in Sulaimaniya local authorities completed necessary legal procedures to identify the bodies of all the victims of a hotel fire. The fire, which killed many foreigners and injured 22 people, broke out in the soma hotel on a commercial street in the city centre and raged out of control for several hours. At least three of the victims died jumping from the third floor to escape the flames.
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