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Suicide bomber kills Iraqi tribal leader

The head of the powerful Aniza tribe in Iraq, Sheik Lawrence al-Hathal, has been killed in a suicide bombing southwest of Baghdad, police say.

People leave a mosque after a suicide car bomb attack
A suicide bomber has killed a prominent tribal leader and five other people in an attack in Iraq. (AAP)

A suicide bomber has killed a prominent tribal leader and five other people in an attack southwest of Baghdad, police say.

The bomber blew up a tanker truck rigged with explosives outside the home of Sheik Lawrence al-Hathal in the Al-Nikhaib area of Anbar province on Friday night, Major Alaa al-Dulaimi said.

A former member of parliament, the sheik was head of the powerful Aniza tribe, which has members in neighbouring Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as well as in Iraq.

The blast also wounded 14 people, Dulaimi said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but suicide bombings are a tactic almost exclusively employed by Sunni extremists in Iraq.


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