Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A suicide motorcycle bomber struck an anti-Qaida group checkpoint in northern Baghdad on Tuesday, killing four anti-Qaida fighters and wounding two civilians, an Interior Ministry source said.

    The attack occurred on Tuesday morning when the bomber drove his explosive-packed motorcycle into the checkpoint of anti-Qaida Awakening Councils' fighters in the al-Suleikh neighborhood, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Iraqi security forces immediately sealed off the main roads leading to the scene and began to evacuate the casualties, the source said.

    The Awakening Councils involve local armed groups, especially some powerful anti-U.S. Sunni insurgent groups, who fight the al-Qaida network after the latter exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.