(Adds details) FALLUJA, Iraq, Jan 20 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed six people in Iraq's western Anbar province on Sunday, including a member of a Sunni Arab tribe involved in fighting al Qaeda, officials said. The attack was the second deadly bombing in as many days in Anbar, where violence has plunged in recent months after local tribes joined forces with the U.S. military to push Sunni Islamist al Qaeda out of the vast region. Hospital officials said Hadi al-Issawi was killed in a town south of the city of Falluja at a celebration for his brother, who had been released from U.S. military custody. It was unclear why his brother, who was also killed, had been detained. One witness said the bomber appeared to be a teenager. He entered a house where the celebration was taking place carrying sweets and then blew himself up, the witness said. Hospital officials said six people were killed and 10 wounded in the blast in the town of Ameriyet al-Fulluja. On Saturday, two suicide bombers killed six policemen and wounded 13 others outside a police station west of Ramadi in Anbar, once the heart of the Sunni Arab insurgency but which has been transformed since local tribes formed a series of so-called awakening councils and allied with U.S. forces. Hadi al-Issawi was a member of Ameriyet al-Fulluja's awakening council. The U.S. military has warned that al Qaeda will try to make a comeback in Anbar, where it once held swathes of territory until many of its gunmen were driven out in the past year. Sunni Arab tribes rebelled against al Qaeda in Iraq because of its indiscriminate killing of civilians and harsh interpretation of Islam. The awakening council model has spread from Anbar to other parts of Iraq and helped curb violence. The U.S. military has said it could hand over security control of Anbar to Iraqi forces in March or April, underscoring the remarkable turnaround in the province. (Writing by Dean Yates; editing by Andrew Roche)
Kashmiri Shia Muslims scuffle with Indian police during a Moharram procession in Srinagar January 18, 2008. Police used batons and detained dozens of Kashmiri Shia followers as they tried to take ...
