A member of the Awakening Council was killed Saturday and another 15 people wounded, when a female suicide bomber detonated her explosive belt in the northern Iraqi city of Baquba, witnesses said. Witnesses told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the suicide attacker targeted a meeting point of the Awakening Council in Bortokala district, central Baquba. The Awakening Councils are local police squads located mainly in Sunni provinces to fight the al-Qaeda terrorist network. On Saturday, the Iraqi government proclaimed a joint US-Iraqi troop offensive in the country's north a success, saying that more than 1,000 suspected members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network have been detained in the city of Mosul so far. Parliamentarian Abbas al-Bayati, a member of the Shiite Alliance of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, made the announcement, saying that Mosul will soon be a safe city again. Earlier Saturday, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi arrived in the Iraqi capital Baghdad where she was due to meet with the country's prime minister, government sources said. Sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Pelosi would also meet with Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, Speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, and other Iraqi leaders, during her visit.
