21 killed in Iraq suicide bomb attacks

At least 21 people, including senior army officers, were killed and some 46 wounded in two overnight suicide bomb attacks in central and northern Iraq, police said Wednesday.

The deadlier attack occurred Tuesday evening when two suicide bombers disguised in army uniforms blew up their explosive vests at the house of a leader of the government-backed Sahwa paramilitary group in the town of Tarmiyah, some 40 km north of Baghdad, killing at least 14 people and wounding 25, a local police source told Xinhua.

The attack took place during a dinner party held by Shiekh Sa'eed Jasim, the Sahwa leader, who was receiving some army and police officers, the source said.

Among those killed were Brig. Gen. Mohammed Abdul-Sattar, Commander of Iraqi Army 22nd Brigade, and another officer. Six soldiers, three policemen and three Sahwa members, including the son of Shiekh Jasim also died, the source added.

Those wounded were 14 soldiers, seven Sahwa members and four policemen, he said.

The Sahwa militia, also known as the Awakening Council or the Sons of Iraq, consists of armed groups, including some powerful anti-US Sunni insurgent groups who turned their rifles against the Al Qaeda network after being dismayed by Al Qaeda's brutality and religious zealotry.

Also Tuesday night, a suicide bomber tried to ram his truck bomb into a police station at al-Mowla village, some 30 km west of the city of Mosul which is about 400 km north of Baghdad, but the guards fired at the truck forcing the bomber to blow it up, a police source told Xinhua.

The huge blast killed seven people, including three policemen, and wounded 21 others. It also destroyed at least 10 houses, the source said.