Dec 16, 2009, 12:32 GMT
Baghdad - The leader of a Sunni militia allied with the government was assassinated south of Baghdad on Wednesday, police told the German Press Agency dpa.
Sheikh Latif al-Batawi, the leader of the local Sawha, or 'awakening,' militia in the village of al-Midain, died in a bomb blast close to his home roughly 15 kilometres south of Baghdad, police said. Two of his bodyguards were injured in the explosion.
Iraqi and US officials credit the Sahwa militias with helping to restore a measure of calm in predominantly Sunni areas since they were recruited with promises of guns, training, money and jobs in the Interior Ministry.
In Falluja, in Iraq's Sunni heartland to the west of Baghdad, a bomb injured three telephone workers repairing an important line, police there told dpa.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday's attacks, but Sunni insurgents have consistently targeted Sahwa leaders and other Iraqis who work for the government as turncoats.
Sheikh Latif's assassination, coming close on the heels of a string of bombings in the capital and in the northern city of Mosul, was a further indication of insurgent's renewed commitment to strike in the wake of a long and rancorous dispute over the distribution of seats in the new parliament to be elected in March 2010.
Three apparently coordinated blasts in central Baghdad killed at least four people and injured at least 14, a week after four blasts in the same area left more than 100 dead and hundreds more injured, police said.
One of the blasts took place outside the heavily fortified 'Green Zone,' in a garage close to the Iranian embassy, destroying 15 cars. A second blast struck near the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Migration, and a third exploded near a popular restaurant.
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