Anti-Qaeda fighters among 11 killed in Iraq bombings

BAGHDAD - Agence France-Presse

Three bomb attacks in Iraq on Wednesday killed 11 people, including four anti-Qaeda fighters who died when a suicide bomber struck as they gathered to collect their salaries, officials said.
 
The bomber, who was on foot, detonated explosives at a police station in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, as the militiamen, known as Sahwa, gathered near a police station, police Lieutenant Colonel Khaled Yassir al-Jumaili said.
 
The blast killed five people, including a senior police officer and four Sahwa fighters. It also wounded 15 other people.
 
Near Ramadi, which like Fallujah is located in Iraq's restive Anbar province, a car bomb killed three police, including an officer, police Captain Marwan al-Dulaimi and a doctor said.
 
And in Baghdad, a car bomb in the capital's Al-Husseiniyah area killed three people and wounded another 10, officials said.
 
Wednesday's attacks came after a wave of violence killed more than 240 people over seven days at the end of April, raising fears of a return to sectarian violence that left tens of thousands dead.
 
Violence in Iraq has fallen sharply from the peak of the sectarian conflict in 2006 and 2007, but violence remains common, killing more than 450 people in April, according to AFP figures gathered from security and medical officials.


 
Wave of Iraq violence kills 460 in April

Violence in Iraq rose sharply in April, with 460 people killed according to a AFP figures, raising fears of a return to the all-out sectarian conflict that plagued the country in past years.
 
The majority of the deaths came during a wave of unrest that began on April 23 when security forces moved on Sunni anti-government protesters near the northern Sunni Arab town of Hawijah, sparking clashes that killed 53 people.

Unrest in April also wounded 1,219 people, according to the AFP figures, which are based on reports from security and medical sources.
 
Among the dead in April were 54 police, 53 soldiers, 14 Sahwa anti-Al-Qaeda militiamen, and two members of the Kurdish security forces.