A suicide bomber Sunday detonated his explosive vest outside a tribal leader's house in Iraq's Anbar province, killing six people, while three people were killed in other violence, officials said.
The suicide bomber launched the attack late afternoon at a checkpoint outside the sheikh's rural homestead near the city of Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad, the officials said, according to AFP. At least four people were wounded in the blast.
A doctor at Fallujah hospital, Ismail al-Jumaili, said the incident occurred when tribal leaders had gathered to welcome some prisoners who had been released a few hours earlier by the US military. The tribal leaders are members of the so-called Awakening front against Al-Qaeda. None of the leaders is known to have been killed in the attack.
US military intelligence experts told reporters in Baghdad on Sunday that Al-Qaeda is on the run and is increasingly being forced to use suicide attacks because its ability to stage large bombings has been diminished.
In another attack Sunday, in the centre of Baquba in Diyala province, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a group of Awakening members, killing one of them, according to police captain Junaa Ibrahim.
At Saad Camp, about five kilometres west of Baquba, a roadside bomb struck a civilian car, killing two people, said Major Mohammed al-Kharkhi of Baquba police
