FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) — The death toll from a suicide bombing at a banquet attended by police and members of an anti-Qaeda group west of Baghdad has risen to 30, a medic told AFP on Monday.
Another 42 people were wounded in Sunday evening's attack in Al-Zaidan village in Abu Ghraib district, the doctor from the public hospital in nearby Fallujah said.
The suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden vest as police sat down to dinner with the anti-Qaeda group in the home of one of its commanders, Aziz Moklif Ghatha al-Zubai.
Zubai was among the dead, an interior ministry official said on Sunday.
Residents said the village used to be an Al-Qaeda stronghold until the US military began sponsoring the formation of so-called Awakening groups among Sunni tribesmen and former rebels opposed to the jihadists.
The groups have become a frequent target for Al-Qaeda reprisals.
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