TARMIYAH (Iraq), Dec 31: A suicide bomber ploughed a truck into a checkpoint manned by members of an anti-Qaeda front in the central Iraqi town of Tarmiyah on Monday, killing at least nine people, four of them children, police said.

Six other people were killed when suspected Al Qaeda gunmen attacked two villages further to the north, security officials said.

The attacks came two days after Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden warned Sunni Muslims in Iraq not to take up arms against his militant network, saying those who did were “traitors.” Five members of a local “Awakening” council were killed in Monday’s attack in Tarmiyah, about 60 km north of Baghdad, police spokesman Lieutenant Ahmed Abdullah said.

Another two members of the Awakening Council — one of myriads of anti-Qaeda fronts which have sprung up across Iraq in recent months — were reported missing. Abdullah said he believed their bodies may have been ripped apart in the powerful blast.

The four children killed, aged about 15, were crossing the road to school when they were hit by the explosion, he added.

“The suicide bomber, driving a truck, went into the checkpoint and exploded the vehicle. Nine people were killed and three were wounded,” the spokesman said.

“Five Awakening members and four students about 15 years old were killed.

The children were crossing the road to their school at the time of the attack.” Tarmiyah was once a stronghold of Al Qaeda but its fighters have recently been pushed back by members of the Awakening.

Suspected Al-Qaeda fighters also attacked Dalli Abbas village near the Diyala provincial capital of Baquba killing three people and wounding 10, police said.

“Three security guards were killed and 10 people wounded, including women and children,” said police Lieutenant Colonel Najm al-Sumaidai. “Residents confronted the attackers and forced them to flee.” A similar attack, in which three villagers were killed, was launched against a village near the city of Samarra, 120 km north of Baghdad, an Iraqi security official said.

“Clashes erupted between residents and Al Qaeda operatives who attacked Tal al-Thahab village. Three villagers and two of the attackers were killed,” the official said.

In other violence on Monday, two Iraqi border guards were killed and four were wounded close to the border with Iran when a roadside bomb exploded, police said. The attack occurred in Mandali, 110km northeast of Baghdad, in the volatile Diyala province.

In another attack, seven people were wounded, including a policeman and a child, when a woman suicide bomber blew herself up near in a police patrol in the centre of Baquba, the capital of Diyala. “She was wearing an explosive belt in a crowded market and detonated herself near a police patrol,” police officer Muhannad al-Bawi said.—AFP