Iraq sectarian war flares as 29 killed in suicide attack on funeral procession Militants linked to al Qaeda have taken advantage of Sunni anger and a security vacuum left by the departure of US forces to launch a series of bombings, prompting reprisal attacks by Shia militias. Seven residents of Baghdad's Sunni suburbs were among 26 people killed countrywide on Thursday. But there have also been worrying signs that political score-settling has taken on a more violent hue, adding to the increasingly calamitous atmosphere gripping the country. A series of fatal drive-by shootings in recent weeks have targeted checkpoints manned by members of Sunni militia known as the Sawha. Sahwa irregulars make up part of the Sunni Awakening, a potent coalition of tribal militias that sided with the United States against Al Qaeda in 2006 and made a vital contribution in stemming an insurgency that had threatened to tip Iraq into a full civil war. Sensing a dangerous rival, Mr Maliki demanded that the Awakening disband its militias and disarm the 80,000 men serving in them by the end of last month. Iraq's Shia politicians have long feared that without the buffer provided by US troops the Sunni Awakening could emerge as a separate armed forces, challenging the primacy of the regular army and police. But the resurrection of Sunni-Shia tensions has made tribal leaders in western Iraq, the Awakening's main stronghold, even less likely to countenance a disbandment of their community's best form of security. So far they have shown no sign of heeding Mr Maliki's ultimatum. Shia government officials have blamed Al Qaeda, the Awakening's old enemy, for the attacks on the Sahwa militia, but many Sunnis remain suspicious of such explanations. Although suspicions are also directed to Al Qaeda militants for a growing number of attacks on regular army and police checkpoints, some in Iraq have concluded that the Sawha is now retaliating. If true, such reprisals would represent a further alarming development in a country that seems more febrile than at any time in the past five years.