Blast near Baghdad kills 5 Sunni leaders - police

BAGHDAD, July 22 (Reuters) Five Sunni tribal leaders opposed to al Qaeda were killed when a suicide bomber drove a minivan packed with about half a tonne of explosives into a house north of Baghdad on Sunday, police said.

The Sunni tribal leaders were meeting in an area known as Jurf al-Milih near Taji, about 20 km north of the Iraqi capital, to discuss joining US and Iraqi forces in fighting al Qaeda in their mainly Sunni Arab area.

A police source said the preliminary death toll of five could rise. Another 12 people were wounded.

An Iraqi army source said the local Sunni tribal chiefs were meeting after talks were held in Taji on Friday with local Shi'ite leaders. Those talks were held under the protection of US forces, the army source said.

US military commanders have been trying to expand their plan, first used in the violent western province of Anbar, of recruiting local Sunnis tired of indiscriminate al Qaeda violence into special provincial police units.

The militant group is blamed for stoking sectarian hatred and violence between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs who were dominant under Saddam Hussein.

The US military bagan a security crackdown in Baghdad five months ago which initially helped bring down the number of sectarian murders but which also pushed al Qaeda fighters out of the capital and into surrounding areas.

US and Iraqi forces later launched another big operation in mid-June coinciding with the arrival of the last of 28,000 extra US troops in Iraq.

REUTERS SM KP1803