Suicide bomber kills 15 people in northeast Baghdad

December 7th,2007 Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi female suicide bomber blewherself up outside the office of local anti-Qaida group in the town of Muqdadiyah in Diyala province on Friday, killing 15 people and wounding 27 others, a provincial police source said. Suhaila Hussein Ali, former member of Saddam's Baath Party, detonated her explosive vest at about 9:30 a.m. (0630 GMT) in front of the gate of the U.S.-backed Awakening Council, who fight militants of al-Qaida in Iraq, in Muqdadiyah some 100 km northeastof Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Al-Sahwa groups, or, Awakening Councils, comprise some powerful Sunni insurgent groups who have turned their rifles on the al-Qaida network after rifts emerged between them. The Sunni groups accused al-Qaida members of adopting hardline Islam and exercising indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities. Diyala province has been the hot bed of insurgency and sectarian violence since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.