BAGHDAD — Iraqi guards fired on a female suicide bomber Sunday and triggered her explosives belt before she reached their headquarters, foiling the latest of more than 20 suicide missions by women this year, military officials said.
The bomber was targeting the headquarters of an awakening council — Sunni volunteers who have turned against insurgents — about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad. One guard was wounded in the blast, the Iraqi military said.
Suicide attacks by women have increased from eight in 2007 to more than 20 this year, according to U.S. military figures. Including Sunday’s attack, at least nine have occurred in Diyala province, a former al-Qaeda stronghold where the extremist group is trying to regroup after setbacks last year.
The attacks are part of an uptick in violence against Iraqi security forces and local administrations.
A truck bomb detonated by remote control Sunday killed six police officers and an awakening-council member in Duluiyah, about 45 miles north of Baghdad, said police Col. Mohammed Khalid.
In other violence, gunmen killed the head of Basra’s intelligence department Saturday in a drive-by shooting in eastern Baghdad, local police said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Brig. Gen. Jabar Musaid, who played a leading role in the recent government crackdown against Shiite militias in Basra, was visiting relatives in a neighborhood controlled by militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Asked about the increase in violence, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said Iraqi militants remain “resilient and determined” despite an overall improvement in the security situation.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been stepping up pressure on extremists in recent months. But the ongoing crackdown backfired on him early Friday when a relative of the prime minister was killed. Ali Abdul-Hussein, said to be a cousin of al-Maliki, was shot dead in a raid conducted by 60 U.S. soldiers.
Officials close to the prime minister said the killing enraged al-Maliki, who demanded an explanation from the Americans. They promised an investigation, said the officials Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
A U.S. military spokesman said troops were going after Shiite extremist groups in the Karbala area when a security guard left a building “while brandishing an AK-47 rifle” held against his shoulder “as if to fire.”
“Perceiving hostile intent and acting in self-defense, coalition forces shot and killed the armed man,” Lt. David Russell wrote in an e-mail. “It was later determined the man killed was a local security guard.”
Karbala Gov. Aqil al-Khuzaie said in a statement Saturday that the raid was a violation of an agreement signed with the United States last year that transferred Karbala to the control of Iraqi security forces.
