[Al Arabiya Latest] At least nine people were killed and another 23 wounded Saturday when a suicide bomber struck the headquarters of a American-allied Sunni militia south of Baghdad in the latest spate of attacks following Friday's explosion in Mosul, Iraqi army officers said.About 250 Iraqis stood in line for their salaries at a military headquarters of the local Sahwa "Awakening" movement in the town of Jbala, 35 miles south of Baghdad, when a bomber walked into the group and blew himself up.
Lieutenant Haidar al-Lami, who was there to hand out salaries told AFP the bomber detonated his payload at 11:00 a.m. killing and wounding "Sahwa" members and soldiers alike.
The Sahwas, former Sunni insurgents who allied with U.S. forces beginning in 2006 to drive out al-Qaeda in Iraq, played a crucial role in improving security in the war-battered country.
The attack took place in a religiously mixed part of Babel province once known as the "Triangle of Death" that saw scores of attacks in the years after the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion.