Baghdad, July 20: A car bomb killed two Iraqi policemen in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Monday, police there said, raising concerns that insurgents in the Sunni heartland may be regrouping.
Police said three civilians and one other policemen were wounded in the attack, which took place on the road leading to the seat of al-Anbar’s provincial government around the time that the city’s mayor, Qassim Mohammed, normally goes to work.
The area west of Baghdad was the site of some of the worst fighting between insurgents and Iraqi and US forces until the government recruited Sahwa, or “Awakening,” militias to maintain security in the region.
But a string of bombings over the weekend raised fears of a renewed insurgency in the area.
Mahmoud al-Jabalawi, the leader of the local Sahwa militia for the district of al-Mada’in, 15 kilometres south of Baghdad, was killed by a roadside bomb on Sunday.
“The Sahwa (militias) are caught between the hammer and the anvil, targeted by terrorist groups,” Amr al-Hijal, a Sunni member of parliament, said after his death.
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, police said.
The soldier died when a roadside bomb planted near a police checkpoint exploded. A second soldier and two policemen were wounded in the blast.
Three other people were injured when a car bomb exploded in an outdoor market in Abu Ghraib, 20 kilometres west of Baghdad.
Al-Jabalawi’s murder followed an assassination attempt against Sheikh Naim Salih al-Halubsi, the leader of the local Sahwa in Karama, near Faluja.
Three of his bodyguards, including his son, were killed in the attack, police said.
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.
—–Agencies