BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt Saturday among U.S.-allied Sunni paramilitaries collecting their salaries at an army base, killing nine and wounding about 30, Iraqi officials said.
The attack in the town of Jbala, about 35 miles south of Baghdad, follows a week of bombings that killed more than 50 people in the capital. Five U.S. soldiers died Friday in a suicide truck bombing in Mosul.
About 250 members of Sunni paramilitaries known as Awakening Councils or Sons of Iraq were mingling around the Jbala base about 11 a.m. when the bomber struck.
One of the wounded, Riad Hassan al-Janabi, said Iraqi soldiers refused to allow them to wait inside the compound behind blast walls. Instead, guards allowed only a few small groups inside at a time, leaving most of them unprotected.
Awakening Council members are mostly Sunnis who joined forces with the Americans to drive al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups from their communities. They have been frequently targeted by Sunni insurgents.
The Associated Press
