Government-allied militia leader killed south of Baghdad (Roundup)

Jul 19, 2009, 12:56 GMT

Baghdad - The leader of a government-allied Sunni militia from central Iraq died in a bomb blast on Sunday, amid continued fatal attacks against police and militiamen in the region.

Mahmoud al-Jabalawi, the leader of the local Sahwa, or 'Awakening' Council for the district of al-Mada'in, 15 kilometres south of Baghdad. He was killed by a roadside bomb on Sunday, Amr al-Hijal, a Sunni member of parliament, told reporters.

'The Sahwa (militias) are caught between the hammer and the anvil, targeted by terrorist groups,' al-Hijal said.

'That the government has failed to support them or bring them into the security services shows that this talk of 'national reconciliation' is just an empty slogan,' he charged.

Al-Hijal further called on the government to extend the same material and moral support to the families of 'martyrs' from the Sahwa Councils as to the families of the 'martyrs' of the security forces.

Earlier Sunday, an Iraqi soldier was killed and six people were wounded in twin bomb attacks in Abu Ghraib, just west of the Iraqi capital.

The soldier died when a roadside bomb planted near a police checkpoint exploded. A second soldier and two policemen were wounded in the blast, police told the German Press Agency dpa.

Three other people were injured when a car bomb exploded in an outdoor market in Abu Ghraib, 20 kilometres west of Baghdad, police said.

Attacks against security forces and allied militias have increased in central Iraq in recent days.

Al-Jabalawi's murder followed an assassination attempt against Sheikh Naim Salih al-Halubsi, the leader of the local Sahwa Council in Karama, near Faluja, in Iraq's Sunni heartland.

Three of his bodyguards, including his son, were killed in the attack, police told told dpa.

On Friday, a bomb planted outside the home of a high-ranking police officer and former Sahwa leader killed his two young sons and wounded 11 other people. That same day, a bomb planted in a football field killed one person and injured nine others.

The Sahwa Councils have helped reduce violence in the areas they patrol since the Iraqi government and US military enticed them to battle insurgents with promises of money, guns, training and jobs in the Interior Ministry.

Since the Iraqi government, which is now dominated by Shiite Muslims and Kurds, assumed control over the programme in March, relations between the government and the militias has at times been rocky.

Ahead of that transfer, Iraqi security forces and Sahwa militiamen battled in the streets of Baghdad after police arrested the leader of a local militia, and Iraqi security forces acknowledged that hundreds of militiamen had disappeared into the city with their guns.