Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- A woman suicide bomber on Monday killed an Awakening Council group leader at the front door of his house in a town north of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

    The woman wearing an explosive-belt knocked at the front door of the house of Ahmad Khamis, a leader of the local Awakening Council group in the town of Tarmiyah and blew herself up, killing him, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Khamis' son was wounded by the blast that also caused serious damages to the house, the source said.

    Suicide attacks carried out by women have become increasingly common in Iraq recently. The U.S. military says that al-Qaida insurgents prefer using female bombers because they can easily escape detection as the Iraqi police are reluctant to search them.

    Earlier in the day, at least three people were killed and up to31 others wounded when a suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into a checkpoint manned by Iraqi soldiers and policemen at the main street of the town of Khan Dhari, just west of Baghdad, local police said.

    The attacks came in the wake of U.S. President George W. Bush's farewell visit to Iraq witnesses a shoes attack by an Iraqi journalist during a news conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad.