Attack on checkpoint kills 12

Published 9:31 pm Monday, December 31, 2007

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint manned by a group fighting against al-Qaida in Iraq, killing 12 people in one of a series of strikes Monday against the largely Sunni groups known as “awakening councils.”

The bomber drove a minibus rigged with explosives into a checkpoint in Tarmiyah, police and a member of the local awakening council said. A council commander said the 12 dead included three schoolchildren.

In Baghdad, a mortar round believed to have been targeting a council headquarters wounded three civilians when it landed on a nearby house, a Baghdad police officer said.

In Wasit province, gunmen shot and wounded an awakening council member in al-Hafriyah, police said. And in Khalis, gunmen traded fire with police and awakening council members, killing one member and a police officer, police said.