Baghdad: A car bomb killed 21 insurgents in the Jilam area, south of Samarra, when it went off mistakenly in a militant compound. The group were filming a propaganda video of the would-be suicide attacker when the bomb set off, according to Majeed Ali, the head of the Sahwa militia force in the city, and a police officer.
Elsewhere on Monday, attacks in Baghdad and the nearby towns of Mussayib and Balad left five people dead, while three militants were also killed in clashes with security forces.
The unrest comes amid the worst period of bloodshed in nearly six years, with more than 1,000 people killed last month as security forces grapple with near-daily attacks and battles with anti-government fighters in Anbar province.
Analysts say that while the vast majority of Sunni Arabs do not support militancy, frustration with the Shiite-led authorities means they are less likely to cooperate with security forces in providing intelligence against insurgents.
In a separate development, the speaker of parliament, Osama al-Nujaifi – Iraq’s most senior Sunni Arab politician – survived an assassination attempt in the northern city of Mosul, when a bomb exploded beside his convoy.