By Xinhua
Baghdad : A bomb went off in the headquarters of anti-al-Qaida group in a northern Baghdad Sunni neighborhood on Saturday, wounding eight of the group members, a well-informed police source said.
“An explosive charge detonated in the morning in the headquarters of the Sahwah, or Awakening Council, in the Adhamiyah neighborhood, wounding eight of the council’s members,” the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The blast also caused damages in the building of the headquarters, he said, adding that the victims were transported tothe neighborhood’s al-Nu’man Hospital.
The U.S. and Iraqi government-backed Awakening councils are groups of local Sunni neighborhoods fighters, including some powerful insurgent groups who have turned their rifles toward the al-Qaida network.
Rifts emerged between the two sides after the al-Qaida members adopted a hard line Islam and exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.