Baghdad ? A suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt Saturday among U.S.-allied Sunni paramilitaries collecting their salaries at an army base, killing nine and wounding about 30, Iraqi officials said.

The attack in the town of Jbala, about 35 miles south of Baghdad, follows a bloody week of bombings that killed more than 50 people in the capital. Five U.S. soldiers died Friday in a bombing in Mosul — the deadliest attack against American troops in more than a year.

Those attacks have raised concern about the capability of Iraqi forces to control security after U.S. soldiers withdraw from Baghdad and other Iraqi cities by June 30.

About 250 members of Sunni paramilitaries known as Awakening Councils or Sons of Iraq were mingling around the Jbala base about 11 a.m. when the bomber struck.