A tribal sheikh seriously wounded when a bomb exploded under his convoy near the central Iraqi city of Samarra killing five of bodyguards on Thursday has died of his wounds, an official said.
Sheikh Maawia Naji Jebara from Tikrit in central Salaheddin province succumbed to head injuries in a US military hospital, an official at the Kirkuk joint coordination centre said.
Jebara was a senior member of the Salaheddin Awakening Council, a coalition of tribes in the Tikrit district formed to fight al Qaeda. He was travelling on the main road near Samarra, about 100 kilometres (63 miles) north of Baghdad, when the blast occurred mid-afternoon, a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media.