A suicide bomber killed 38 people and wounded dozens more in a town near Baghdad on Wednesday , police said . The attacker detonated explosives near Awakening Council members in al-Madaan , a town roughly 20 kilometers southeast of Baghdad , as they were collecting their monthly paychecks at the council 's headquarters . The Awakening Councils are predominantly made up of Sunni Arab fighters in Iraq who turned against al Qaeda in late 2006 . The U.S.-backed movement is credited as being one of the main factors that contributed to a drop in violence across Iraq . But council members have become targets for jihadists , notably the Sunni extremist group ISIS , which has seized key areas of Iraqi territory this year . The majority of the casualties in the al-Madaan attack were reported to be Awakening Council members . Fifty-six people were wounded in the bombing , police said .
Fifty-six people are wounded by the bombing , police say . - The U.S. military says it has no information about a possible link between al Qaeda and the attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. The councils are mainly consist of Sunni Arab fighters who turned against al Qaeda .