VIOLENCE HITS BAGHDAD ARE AGAIN

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Suicide truck bomb attack kills 12 north of Baghdad

The Associated Press
Monday, December 31, 2007

BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber drove a truck rigged with explosives into a checkpoint manned by members of a U.S.-backed security volunteer group in a town north of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 12 people, police and a member of the volunteer group said.
Another three people were missing, believed blown up in the explosion in the town of Mishada, 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the capital, on part of the main highway linking Baghdad to northern Iraq, according a police officer and Adil al-Mishhadani, a member of the volunteer group.
The groups, known as Awakening Councils and dubbed Concerned Local Citizens by the U.S. military, have been credited with helping reduce overall violence in the country by 60 percent since June. They are made up of mainly Sunni tribal fighters who turned against al-Qaida in Iraq earlier this year and are now paid a salary of US$300 (about €200) a month by the U.S. military to help provide security in their areas.
Members of the councils are increasingly becoming targets in Iraq. Last week, a new audiotape of Osama bin Laden emerged warning Iraq's Sunni Arabs against joining the Awakening Councils or participating in any unity government.