Baghdad - A female suicide bomber targeting a police checkpoint injured four people in central Baghdad on Sunday as US troops arrested four policemen in the northern city of Tikrit. The bomber, wearing an explosive belt, blew herself up at a police checkpoint in Karada in the centre of Baghdad, Voices of Iraq VOI news agency cited police as saying.
Several suicide bombings have been carried out recently by women in Iraq, the deadliest of which were by two handicapped women in Baghdad's pet market on February 1.
In northern Iraq, a US force raided the central police department in Alam, east of Tikrit, and arrested four policemen without giving the reason, a security source in the province of Salahaddin said.
Also in the north, gunmen stormed a home in Duluiyah and shot dead a woman.
In Bayji, 200 kilometres north of Baghdad, a member of the local anti-al-Qaeda Awakening Council was killed in a bomb blast in a fresh attack on members of the councils.
Members of the local Awakening group in Babil, south of Baghdad, staged protests Saturday evening against the killing by US troops of three group members Friday night in the village of Jirf al-Shakr, near Hilla, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad.
"US troops killed 19 members and injured 12 in about 45 days," Sabah al-Janabi, the head of the group in the region, was cited by the VOI as saying.
"The troops claim after every incident that it happened by mistake," al-Janabi said.
Members of the council, who took part in the protest, said they would withdraw from the Awakening Councils.
The councils, made up of members of local clans in Sunni-dominated areas, are funded by the US military to clear their areas of al-Qaeda insurgents.
At least 19 members of the councils have been killed recently by US troops, which sparked anger and protests.
In the south, five Iranians were arrested for illegally crossing the waterway border of Shat al-Arab into the city of Fao, some 670 kilometres south of Baghdad, local police told VOI.
The Iranians are from the city of Abadan.
