By Xinhua
Tikrit, Iraq : The death toll from Sunday’s suicide car bomb attack targeting an Awakening Council group in Salahudin province in central Iraq, had risen to 25 with 45 other people injured, a local police source said Monday.
“Our latest report said that at least 25 people were killed and 45 others injured when a suicide car bomb struck a checkpoint manned by an Awakening Council group outside the village of Mazarie near the town of Yathrib, 70 km north of Baghdad, on Sunday afternoon” the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Three more people went missing by the attack, the source said, adding that the blast also damaged 10 civilian cars and destroyed some 20 shops.
Local authorities imposed curfew in the area, including the town of Yathrib, he said.
Earlier, the source put the toll at 17 killed and 40 others injured by the powerful blast.
The Awakening Council groups are Sunni fighters who turned up against al-Qaida in Iraq network, cooperating with the U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces by guarding neighborhoods or providing information.
Rifts emerged between predominantly Sunni insurgent groups and the al-Qaida in Iraq organization after the latter adopted a hardline Islam and exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.