A suicide bomber blew himself up near a group of anti-Qaeda fighters as they were receiving salaries north of Baghdad on Monday, killing 22 people, the second bloody attack to hit Iraq in as many days.
The blast, which also wounded at least 44 people, came soon after officials raised the salaries of the Sunni militiamen in a bid to placate weeks of anti-government demonstrations in mostly-Sunni areas of the country.
It also comes just a day after a coordinated assault on a police headquarters in a disputed city in the north killed 30 people amid a spike in violence nationwide.
The attacker struck at 11.00am in Taji, which lies 25 kilometres north of Baghdad, as the fighters were collecting their salaries.
In total, 22 people were killed, the vast majority of them militiamen but also two soldiers, according to a security official and a medical source. At least 44 others were wounded, among them eight soldiers.
Members of the Sahwa, otherwise known as the Awakening Councils or Sons of Iraq, are made up of a collection of Sunni tribal militias that sided with the US military against al-Qaeda from late-2006 onwards, helping turn the tide of Iraq’s bloody insurgency.
They are often targeted by Sunni militants linked to al-Qaeda who regard them as traitors.