By DPA
Baghdad : A female suicide bomber blew herself up Monday near the house of a chief of tribal police in the restive Diyala province in northeast Iraq, killing him and three others.
“A female bomber wearing an explosive vest targeted the house of Sheykh Thair Taban al-Kharkhi, the head of the tribal police unit in the town of Canan,” spokesman of a tribal squad Shukr al-Shumari told the Voices of Iraq news agency.
Al-Kharkhi’s son and daughter and his guard were also killed in the attack, al-Shumari said. The house was badly damaged.
Canan is in Baquba, 60 km north-east of the Iraqi capital.
Tribal police units are formed and funded by the US military mainly in Sunni Arab areas to fight loyalists of the Al Qaeda terrorist network.
The units, also known as Awakening Councils, are usually led by local tribal chiefs or dignitaries. A decrease in violence, especially in Baghdad and surrounding areas, is believed to have been partly due to the councils’ contribution to improving security.
Council members have become targets of attacks since December.