Insurgents strike leaders of Sunni militia fighting al-Qaida in Iraq

Sunni security militia targeted in Iraq violence

BAGHDAD — Gunmen killed three leaders of a Sunni militia that fights al-Qaida and wounded a fourth Sunday in a drive-by shooting as the men were leaving a mosque south of Iraq’s capital after their morning prayers.

Another leader of the militia was killed by a car bomb west of Baghdad.

Altogether, 11 people were killed and at least 30 were injured Sunday in the kind of violence that still plagues Iraq even if the country is more secure now than in years past.

In near-daily attacks, insurgents have relentlessly hit Iraqi security forces as well as members of the government-backed Sunni militia whose movement is known in Arabic as the Sahwa, of Awakening. The Sahwa fighters are former insurgents who joined U.S. forces to fight al-Qaida in one of the major turning points of the war.

The attacks are particularly troubling because of doubts that Iraq’s security forces won’t bring violence to a heel as the U.S. military prepares to whittle down its troop numbers to 50,000 by the end of August from a high of nearly 170,000 in late 2007.

The Sahwa militiamen were attacked as they left a mosque after dawn prayers in the town of Jurf al-Sakhr just south of the capital. Lt. Ahmed al-Khafaji, a police official in the nearby town of Musayyib, confirmed the victims were Sahwa members.

Assailants who killed the other Sahwa commander later in the day stuck a bomb to his car in the Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib. His two bodyguards were wounded, police said.

Elsewhere in the country, three more Iraqis were killed and 13 wounded in attacks also targeting police and soldiers, according to security and hospital officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Rush-hour bombings in Baghdad also hit commuters on their way to work, killing four and wounding at least 16.

Associated Press Writer Saad Abdul-Kadir contributed to this report.