A suicide bomber killed at least 11 people and wounded 21 others today in Iraq's increasingly turbulent western Anbar province, a senior Iraqi army official and police said.
The blast comes weeks before a March 7th parliamentary vote that al-Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq has threatened to derail by military means, stoking fears of more violence to come as politicians and candidates gear up for the election.
Once a safe-haven for Sunni Islamist insurgent groups such as al-Qaeda, the mainly Sunni province had been relatively calm after tribal leaders turned on militants there from late 2006 and formed anti-insurgent militias in 2007 with US backing.
However, a series of blasts in the desert province, the nation's largest, in recent months has shattered the calm in the run up to the national vote, seen as a crucial test as Iraq emerges from decades of dictatorship, war and economic decline.
Suicide bombers killed more than 25 people in Ramadi, 100 km west of Baghdad, on December 30th in attacks that targeted Anbar's governor, Qassim Mohammed, seriously wounding him.
Iraqi and US officials hope the election will solidify the country's young democracy before a US military withdrawal due by the end of 2011, by drawing former insurgents and militias into the political process.
Reuters