RAMADI, Iraq – Suspected militants killed four state-backed fighters in Iraq on Saturday, security sources said, apparently viewing them as collaborators with the government of a nation plagued by sectarian hatred. The four “Sahwa” militia fighters were killed in an attack on their headquarters on the outskirts of Garma, 9 km (six miles) east of Falluja, a city in the western province of Anbar. Gunmen also ambushed and kidnapped 10 Sunni policemen near Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, a Sunni heartland bordering Syria. When Sunni-Shi'ite bloodshed was at its height in 2006-07, Anbar was in the grip of Al-Qaeda's local affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq, which has regained strength in recent months. Sahwa or “Awakening” fighters are Sunni tribesmen who helped US troops subdue Al-Qaeda in 2006. In other violence, tribesmen clashed with security forces and set four of their vehicles ablaze after a woman and three of her young children were killed in an army raid north of Ramadi. – Reuters
