By DPA
Baghdad : A woman suicide bomber blew herself and eight other people up in Baquba, north of Baghdad, Wednesday, security sources and media reports said.
Two policemen and members of the government-backed Awakening Council in Baquba were among those killed in the attack near a patrol belonging to the council’s forces in New Baquba.
At least 16 people were wounded in the incident, including civilians, the security sources said. Nearby buildings and vehicles were also damaged.
The Awakening Council is an armed group with branches across the country that fights militants affiliated to the Al Qaeda terrorist network.
In other developments, the US military command in Baghdad said the US military had suffered 900 deaths in 2007, with the final fatality in an accident near and airfield on the last day of the year.
The number of fatalities in 2007 – the highest since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 – put the overall number of US dead at 3,900, according to official US Defence Department figures. In 2006, the 822 US forces were killed.
The number of Iraqis killed in terrorist attacks and fighting among militias, soldiers and other security forces during 2007 came to an estimated 18,000. Of these, 16,000 were civilians.
The latest bloodshed came on New Years Day, when a suicide bomber killed about 30 people in an attack during a private funeral in Baghdad’s eastern Sayuna district, the Voices of Iraq news agency reported.