Iraq bomber kills U.S. ally

BAGHDAD — The suicide bomber walked straight to the Sunni Arab leader of a group battling al-Qaida in Iraq, shook his target’s hand and detonated the explosives wrapped around his body.

Minutes later, as survivors were being moved to safety, witnesses said a second suicide attacker drove into the north Baghdad compound and set off his explosives.

The apparently coordinated attack killed at least 14 people, including Col. Riyadh al-Samarrai, commander of the Azamiyah neighborhood’s citizen security group, police and government officials said Monday.

Samarrai’s assassination comes as the U.S. military has been heralding the rise of citizens’ groups, known as “awakening councils,” as a key reason for steep reductions in violence. The attack came nine days after Osama bin Laden threatened to punish those who aid Americans. Since bin Laden’s threat, the attacks have been hitting the capital almost daily.

By evening Monday, eight bombs in all had exploded in Baghdad neighborhoods east of the Tigris river, killing at least 18 people and injuring more than three dozen. Some officials put the death toll as high as 25 and the injury count at more than 50.

In a separate incident, 20 gunmen ambushed a security checkpoint manned by members of another neighborhood patrol in northeastern Baghdad, kidnapping eight of them, Iraqi government officials said.