Faluja, Iraq  - The leader of a government-allied militia was seriously wounded on Saturday in an assassination attempt against him near the Iraqi city of Faluja, police and medics said.

Sheikh Naim Salih al-Halubsi, the leader of the local Sahwa, or "Awakening," Council, was being treated in Faluja General Hospital for wounds sustained when a bomb exploded as he passed through the district of al-Karama, some 15 kilometres east of the city, medics said.

Three of his bodyguards, including his son, were killed in the attack, police told the German Press Agency dpa.

Faluja, 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, was the site of some of the worst fighting between Sunni insurgents and US and Iraqi forces until the government enticed armed groups to switch sides and form Sahwa Councils to maintain security with promises of weapons, training and money last year.

Since then, the city has been relatively quiet, though a series of recent attacks targeting those who work with the government have raised concerns that insurgents may be regrouping in the area.

On Friday, a bomb planted outside the home of a high-ranking police officer and former Sahwa leader killed his two young sons and wounded 11 other people, police said. That same day, a bomb planted in a football field killed one person and injured nine others.

On Tuesday, police arrested three men on suspicion of kidnapping and torturing to death the 11-year-old son of a police officer in al- Saqlawiya, 12 kilometres north of Faluja.

Once in detention, the men confessed to that crime, and others committed in the city, police said.(dpa)