At least 18 people were killed and more than 30 others injured in the twin suicide truck bomb attack in the town of Beiji in Salahudin Province on Tuesday morning, a provincial policeman said.
"Two suicide bombers driving two explosive-laden trucks targeted early in the morning the houses of Colonel Sa'ad Nufous, police chief of the town and Shiekh Thamir al-Qaiysi, head of the town's Awakening Council," Colonel Ahmed Hassan, from the provincial police headquarters, told Xinhua.
The blasts struck the two houses, located 500 meters away from each other in a residential area, killing at least 18 people, including three policemen, and wounding more than 30 others, Hassan said.
"Most of the victims were women and children, who were sleeping in the early hours during to the attack," he said.
At least ten houses were also totally destroyed along with damaging 13 civilian cars by the blasts of Beiji, 200 km north of Baghdad, Hassan said.
Hassan said the brother of Colonel Nufous was killed by the attacks while Nufous survived with his family unhurt.
Al-Qaiysi also escaped the attacks unhurt, he added.
Earlier, another police source said that the suicide truck bomber targeted the house of Beiji's police chief at about 6:00 a. m. (0300 GMT), but he failed to reach his heavily fortified house and turned to strike his nearby parents' house instead.
Meanwhile, the second suicide truck bombing targeted the house of Shiekh Hamad al-Jubouri and totally destroyed his house, according to the police.
However, Colonel Hassan said that the suicide bomber targeted the head of the town's Awakening Council Thamir a-Qaiysi and not the Shiekh Hamad al-Jubouri, who is actually one of the provincial Awakening Council's leaders.
Sunni tribesmen in several Sunni dominated provinces have formed alliances named Awakening councils, which is backed by the U.S. and the Iraqi government, to fight al-Qaida in Iraq fighters.
Rifts emerged between Sunni tribes, the backbone of insurgency against the U.S. troops, because of the al-Qaida adherence to a hardline form of Sunni Islam and indiscriminate killings.
Last month, the al-Qaida vowed to target tribal leaders who have joined the what so-called Awakening Councils in Sunni provinces to combat al-Qaida militant groups in their areas.
Source: Xinhua
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