BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber attacked government-backed Sunni militia on Sunday as they lined up to be paid on Baghdad's southwestern outskirts, killing at least nine and wounding 29, a source in the Iraqi Interior Ministry said.
The blast in the Sunni district of Radwaniya occurred as political deadlock continued in the war-damaged country following a March election that produced no outright winner and as yet no new government.
Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda have sought to exploit the political vacuum created by a failure of Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish factions to agree on a coalition government, and have carried out a series of attacks since the vote.
In Sunday's blast, the suicide bomber blew himself up among "Sahwa" militiamen, Sunni fighters who once allied with al Qaeda but turned on the militant group in 2006/07, helping U.S. forces turn the tide in the war.
All of the dead were Sahwa, while two soldiers numbered among the wounded, the Interior Ministry source said.
There has been a series of attacks against Sahwa leaders in Sunni areas around Baghdad in recent months, many attributed to acts of revenge.
The sectarian war between once dominant Sunnis and majority Shi'ites that kicked off after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion has largely subsided but a stubborn Sunni Islamist insurgency persists.
The U.S. military has increasingly been taking a backseat role since pulling out of Iraqi urban centres in June last year and U.S. troops will end combat operations on August 31 ahead of a full withdrawal next year.
(Reporting by Reuters Television; Writing by Michael Christie; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)
