Al Qaeda kills seven from Iraqi guard unit: police

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Seven members of an Iraqi neighborhood security force were killed during fighting with al Qaeda militants north of Baghdad, police said on Sunday.

They said the incident took place on Saturday when the unit raided an al Qaeda stronghold near the city of Samarra in Salahuddin province, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have launched several operations against al Qaeda this year.

"Seven of the group, including a local tribal leader, were killed in a security operation near Samarra," Mohammed Omar, a police captain in the nearby provincial capital Tikrit said. "Al Qaeda killed them yesterday."

The U.S. military refers to the mainly Sunni Arab neighborhood guard units as "concerned local citizens" (CLCs) and has credited them with contributing to a sharp drop in violence across Iraq since last June.

Police captain Muthana Shaker in Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, said the unit had been raiding an al Qaeda safehouse when fighting erupted.

It was unclear if any al Qaeda militants were killed.

CLC units, which mainly man checkpoints in their own neighborhoods, first emerged in late 2006 in western Anbar province after Sunni Arab tribal sheikhs turned against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda because of its indiscriminate killings.

The U.S. military has been keen to encourage the units, which have grown to comprise roughly 80,000-90,000 members, although the Shi'ite-led government has been wary of the armed groups, whose ranks include former Sunni Arab insurgents.

(Reporting by Sabah al-Bazee, Writing Noah Barkin)