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"BAGHDAD: At least 23 people were killed Sunday after a car bomb exploded north of Baghdad at a checkpoint run by the police and citizen patrols of Iraqis who have turned against the insurgency, Iraqi officials said.
The blast, near a market outside of Balad, 80 kilometers, or 50 miles, north of Baghdad, was one of the deadliest this year. At least 40 people, most of them civilians, were wounded, the hospital in Balad reported.
On a day the U.S. defense secretary made an unannounced visit to Iraq, the attack underscored the continuing struggle between Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and the citizen patrols known as Awakening groups that have been credited with reducing the number of attacks here since last summer.
Near Mosul, in the north, five more Awakening members were killed Sunday in an attack in which 10 insurgents also died, the U.S. military said.
At least 100 Awakening members have been killed in the last few weeks."
Bomber kills 23 Iraqis at checkpoint - International Herald Tribune
The blast, near a market outside of Balad, 80 kilometers, or 50 miles, north of Baghdad, was one of the deadliest this year. At least 40 people, most of them civilians, were wounded, the hospital in Balad reported.
On a day the U.S. defense secretary made an unannounced visit to Iraq, the attack underscored the continuing struggle between Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and the citizen patrols known as Awakening groups that have been credited with reducing the number of attacks here since last summer.
Near Mosul, in the north, five more Awakening members were killed Sunday in an attack in which 10 insurgents also died, the U.S. military said.
At least 100 Awakening members have been killed in the last few weeks."
Bomber kills 23 Iraqis at checkpoint - International Herald Tribune
