BAGHDAD — A suicide bombing north of Baghdad on Wednesday and a string of attacks against members of a burgeoning Sunni tribal movement have demonstrated al-Qaeda in Iraq’s concern over the alliance between the U.S. military and the grassroots groups.
U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said the attacks were the “clearest indication” that the foreign-led al-Qaeda was worried about losing the support of its fellow Sunni Arabs.
Last week, Osama bin Laden warned Iraq’s Sunni Arabs against joining the groups fighting al-Qaeda or participating in any unity government. Since then, the overwhelmingly Sunni tribal groups — known as Awakening Councils or Concerned Local Citizens — have been the targets of a series of deadly attacks.
In the latest one, a bomber wearing a vest loaded with explosives killed seven people Wednesday and wounded 22 in Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province, police said.
The dead included a policeman and two members of an Awakening Council group called the Brigades of 1920s Revolution, a former insurgent group, police said.
Police Col. Raghib al-Omari said the bomber detonated the vest near a hospital in the center of Baqubah, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
The U.S. military said the suicide bomber killed four people and wounded six after jumping onto the hood of a car being driven by an Awakening Council member. The different death tolls could not immediately be reconciled.
A number of insurgent groups are thought to have switched allegiances and joined the Awakening Councils. There are more than 70,000 men in about 300 such groups being bankrolled by the U.S. around Iraq, and the number is expected to grow.
“They are concerned about it, that this grassroots movement has changed the dynamic,” Bergner said. “It is perhaps the clearest evidence of Iraqi citizens rejecting Taliban ideology, corrupt practices and the indiscriminate violence that the Iraqi people no longer accept.”
The volunteer Sunni tribal groups are credited with helping to more than halve violence around Iraq in the past six months. The deployment of tens of thousands of additional American troops and a cease-fire by Shiite cleric Muq tada al-Sadr also have helped ease attacks.
Most of the fighting against al-Qaeda is now concentrated to the north of Baghdad and some parts just south of the capital.
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