Twin blasts north of Baghdad kill six; Iraq civilian deaths in Sept second lowest this year

Two roadside bombs in a former al-Qaeda stronghold north of Baghdad on Sunday killed six people, including four anti-Qaeda militiamen, a police officer and a doctor said.

Two Sahwa, or Awakening Council, fighters were initially killed when their car was struck by a roadside bomb at around 9:30 am (0630 GMT) in the al-Nibaie area, north of the town of Mashaada, 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the capital, police First Lieutenant Uday Sarhan said.

When two other Sahwa fighters rushed to the scene of the blast, their vehicle was hit by another roadside bomb, killing both of the car’s passengers and two nearby civilians, Sarhan said. He added that there had been no wounded from the two explosions.

A doctor at a hospital in the nearby town of Balad confirmed that four Sahwa fighters and two civilians had died.

Nibaie is a desert area that was a stronghold of Qaeda at the height of Iraq’s Sunni insurgency in 2006 and 2007.

The tide of that insurgency began to turn partly due to Sunni tribesmen siding with the U.S. military against Qaeda from late 2006, forming the Sahwa, who are called the “Sons of Iraq” by U.S. forces.

Violence is down across Iraq from the peak of the insurgency and sectarian war, but attacks are still common.

September's death toll

The number of civilians killed by violence in Iraq dropped to 110 in September from 155 in August, the second lowest toll so far for 2011, according to health ministry figures released late on Saturday.

In May this year 102 civilians were reported killed, the lowest figure so far in 2011.

The number of Iraqi police killed declined to 42 in September from 45 in August, while 33 soldiers were killed in September, down from 39 the previous month, according to figures from the interior and defense ministries.

The ministries said 132 civilians, 105 police officers and 82 soldiers were wounded in September attacks.
On Friday, at least 18 people were killed and 63 wounded when a large car bomb exploded among mourners crowding into a Shi’ite funeral in the city of Hilla south of Baghdad.

On September 12, gunmen killed 22 Shi’ite pilgrims in an ambush in the west Sunni heartland Province of Anbar.

Two days later a car bomb targeting a popular restaurant killed 15 people and wounded 46 more in the southern Shi’ite city of Hamza south of Baghdad.

As U.S. troops pack up to leave, Iraqi officials say local armed forces are capable of containing Sunni Islamist insurgents tied to Qaeda and radical Shi’ite militias. But the government is debating whether some U.S. troops should stay on as trainers past the 2011 withdrawal.