Double bombing in Baghdad kills at least 7, wounds 25, officials and witnesses say

A double suicide bombing killed at least seven people and wounded 25 Monday outside the Baghdad office of a government agency that cares for Sunni mosques and shrines, witnesses and a hospital official said. A police officer put the death toll as high as 14.

In the initial attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to the Sunni Endowment office in Baghdad's northern Azamiyah district, said Baghdad military spokesman Brig. Qassim al-Moussawil. As people rushed to evacuate the wounded, a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives just meters (yards) away, al-Moussawil said.

The dead included Riyadh al-Samarrai, head of a local U.S.-backed armed group, said one witness, who is an employee of the Sunni Endowment. His account was corroborated by a member of the armed group, who gave his name only as Abu Omar, and by an Iraqi army official.

Another witness, one of al-Samarrai's guards, said the suicide bomber walked up to al-Samarrai _ a former police colonel _ and embraced him before detonating his explosives.

In the first few hours after the Monday morning attack, the death toll varied. An official at Azamiyah's al-Noaman hospital said his hospital had received seven bodies. The police officer said some casualties had also been taken to another hospital in the city. Al-Moussawil said at least six people had been killed.

Most witnesses and officials spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals or because they were not officially authorized to speak to media. The differing death tolls could not immediately be reconciled.

The U.S.-backed groups _ predominantly Sunni Arab fighters who turned against al-Qaida and are known as "awakening councils" _ have been credited with helping reduce violence across Iraq by 60 percent since June. But they are increasingly becoming targets, with several recent bombings striking their offices and checkpoints. Monday's blast occurred near one of their offices.

The Azamiyah area had been a stronghold of Sunni insurgents since 2003 as well as a safe haven for al-Qaida in Iraq militants. Local insurgents, however, rose against al-Qaida last year and joined the U.S. military in the fight against the terror network.

The Azamiyah awakening group called for a vehicle ban in the district in the aftermath of Monday's bombing.

The switch of allegiance by the Azamiyah insurgents was one of the most significant in a series of similar moves across Baghdad's Sunni neighborhoods. Azamiyah is home to Iraq's most revered Sunni shrine, the mosque of Imam Abu Hanifa and many in the Tigris-side area served as officers in Saddam Husssein's army and security agencies, giving an edge to the insurgency there.

In an audiotape released Dec. 29, Osama bin Laden warned Iraq's Sunni Arabs against joining the groups or participating in any unity government.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said last week the attacks were the "clearest indication" that the foreign-led al-Qaida was worried about losing the support of its fellow Sunni Arabs.

A number of insurgent groups are thought to have switched allegiances and joined the Awakening movement. There are more than 70,000 men in about 300 such groups being bankrolled by the U.S. around Iraq, and the number is expected to grow.