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Anti-Al-Qaida Fighters Killed in Iraq Attacks


Bombings in central Iraq have killed at least 11 people, including anti-al-Qaida Sunni fighters near the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.

The pro-government militiamen had gathered Wednesday outside a military post in the city west of Baghdad to collect their pay when a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest detonated himself near the group, killing at least three of the fighters and a civilian. Police said the blast also wounded 15 people.

The Sahwa fighters are made up of Sunni Arabs who joined forces with the U.S. military to battle al-Qaida at the height of Iraq's insurgency. They have since been regularly targeted by Sunni insurgents who see them as traitors.

In a separate attack in Baghdad, a car bomb in the eastern suburb of al-Husseiniyah killed four civilians and wounded 10 more.

Another car bomb north of the city of Ramadi - which, like Fallujah, is in Iraq's restive Anbar province - killed at least two policemen and wounded another 10.

Wednesday's attacks follow a wave of violence that killed scores of Iraqis in April, raising fears of a return to the sectarian violence that left tens of thousands dead in 2006 and 2007.
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