The death toll from the suicide bomb attack at a base of a paramilitary group members in southwest of Baghdad on Sunday morning rose to 43 with another 40 wounded, an Interior Ministry source said.

"Our latest report said that 43 Awakening Council group members were killed and 40 others were wounded by the suicide bombing of Radwaniyah," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The attack took place in the morning when a suicide bomber blew up his explosive vest among a crowd of Awakening Council members, or Sahwa in Arabic, who lined up to collect their salaries at their base in the Balasim village at the al-Radwaniyah area, the source said.

Several Iraqi army soldiers were among the casualties, the source added.

Earlier, the source put the toll at nine killed and 29 wounded, including two soldiers.

The Awakening Council group consists of armed groups, including some powerful anti-U.S. Sunni insurgent groups, who fought the al- Qaida network after the latter exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.