By Xinhua
Baghdad : At least 10 people were killed and 16 injured in twin suicide bomb attacks, which targeted the Sunni endowment office in northern Baghdad Monday morning, security sources and witnesses said.
“10 people were killed and 16 injured by the two suicide bomb attacks in Adhamiyah district,” an interior ministry source said.
A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest blew himself up at the entrance of the Sunni endowment office, which cares for Sunni mosques and shrines across Iraq, at about 11:00 a.m. in the Saba’-Abkar area in the Adhamiyah district, it said.
Afterwards, another suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a crowd of Awakening Council group members and security forces who were gathering outside the building to evacuate the casualties and blew up his car.
Most of the victims were Awakening Council group members, the source added.
Colonel Riyadh al-Samaraie, the leader of the US and Iraqi government-backed Awakening Council group in the neighbourhood, was killed in the attack.
“Colonel Samarie, his son and six of his guards were among the killed,” a guard at the attacked office said.
The Awakening Councils are groups of local Sunni fighters, including some powerful anti-US insurgent groups, which are fighting the Al Qaeda in Iraq.