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| Iraq bombs hit Sunni stronghold | Iraq bombs hit Sunni stronghold |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| A double bombing in Baghdad has killed at least seven people, including the head of a US-backed armed group which fights al-Qaeda in Sunni Muslim areas. | |
| Reports say a suicide bomber struck at the entrance of the Sunni Endowment, or Waqf, office in Adhamiya district. | Reports say a suicide bomber struck at the entrance of the Sunni Endowment, or Waqf, office in Adhamiya district. |
| Witnesses said a second blast was detonated a few metres away as people fled from the scene of the first. | Witnesses said a second blast was detonated a few metres away as people fled from the scene of the first. |
| Riyadh Samarrai, leader of the Adhamiya Awakening group, also a Waqf employee, was killed along with his son. | Riyadh Samarrai, leader of the Adhamiya Awakening group, also a Waqf employee, was killed along with his son. |
| One of Mr Samarrai's bodyguards told reporters the suicide bomber had walked up to the former police colonel and embraced him before detonating his explosives. | |
| US-backed "awakening councils", made up of insurgent fighters who turned against al-Qaeda extremists, have been credited with helping reduce violence across Iraq's Sunni Arab areas. | |
| But correspondents say their offices and checkpoints are themselves becoming targets of pro-al-Qaeda bombers. | |
| The north Baghdad suburb of Adhamiya, on the east bank of the Tigris, is home to Iraq's most revered Sunni shrine, the Abu Hanifa mosque. | |
| After the overthrow of Saddam Hussein it was a centre of anti-US resistance, until the "awakenings" initiative in 2006 to counter al-Qaeda, which many Sunnis blamed for fomenting sectarian strife. |