Female suicide bomber kills two in Iraq

BAGHDAD: A female suicide bomber blew herself up in the midst of a local counter-insurgency group in Diyala province on Tuesday, killing two people and wounding 10 others, the police said.

The woman, wearing an explosive belt, struck at the members of the Awakening Council who were manning a checkpoint in the town of Abu Saida, 90 km northeast of Baghdad, the source from Diyala police told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The Awakening Councils are armed neighbourhood groups, including some powerful anti-US Sunni insurgent elements, who fight the Al Qaeda network.

Diyala province, which stretches from eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border, has long been the stronghold of Al Qaeda militant groups and hotbed of insurgency and sectarian violence since the US-led invasion in 2003.