Baghdad, Dec 24 (IANS): At least 38 paramilitary troopers were killed and 56 injured Wednesday in a suicide attack at a military base near this Iraqi capital.
The suicide bomber detonated himself amid a crowd of Sahwa paramilitary personnel who were gathering to collect their salaries at the entrance of the base in the town of Madain, some 30 km south of Baghdad, a police source told Xinhua.
The attack came as the Iraqi government is trying to revive Sunni paramilitary groups after the advance of the Islamic State (IS) militant group in large parts of several predominantly Sunni provinces in northern and western Iraq in June.
The Sahwa group, also known as the Awakening Council or the Sons of Iraq, consists of armed groups, including some powerful anti-US Sunni insurgent groups who turned their guns against the Al Qaeda after the latter exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shia and Sunni communities.