Guards kill would-be suicide bomber
Iraqi guards opened fire on a female suicide bomber and triggered her explosives belt before she reached their headquarters, foiling the latest of more than 20 suicide missions by women this year.
The bomber was targeting the headquarters of an awakening council - Sunni volunteers who have turned against insurgents - about 60 miles north-east of Baghdad.
One of the guards was wounded in the blast, the Iraqi military said.
The number of female suicide attackers has risen from eight in 2007 to more than 20 so far this year, according to US military figures.
Including Sunday's attack, at least nine have occurred in Diyala province, a former al Qaida stronghold where the extremist group is trying to regroup after setbacks last year.
A female suicide bomber struck outside a government complex a week ago in Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 40, according to US and Iraqi officials.
The attacks are part of an increase in violence against Iraqi security forces and local administrations.
A truck bomb detonated by remote control on Sunday killed six policemen and an awakening council member in Duluiyah, some 45 miles north of Baghdad, said police Colonel Mohammed Khalid.
In other violence, gunmen killed the head of Basra's intelligence department on Saturday in a drive-by shooting in eastern Baghdad, local police said.
Brigadier General Jabar Musaid, who played a leading role in the recent government crackdown against Shiite militias in Basra, was visiting relatives in a neighbourhood controlled by militiamen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
