At least 17 people are thought to have died in a series of bomb attacks in Iraq today.
A suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a police checkpoint just outside Iraq's western city of Ramadi, killing nine people and wounding at least 13.
A police spokesman said four police were among the dead, and the rest were civilians. The wounded included three children and two women.
The explosion set half a dozen cars ablaze in Ramadi, 100 km west of Baghdad, capital of the vast desert region that was once the heartland of Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgency.
Mohammed Hussein Alwan, a 40-year-old farmer, was riding in a pickup truck about 200 yards from the attacker's car when the blast occurred.
"I ran to the site and saw five burning cars and a child who was thrown by the explosion and landed on the top of a car," he said. "I tried to approach him to see whether he was alive or dead, but the police started to open fire in all directions and we had to run away."
Police checkpoints have been a favourite target of insurgents seeking to show that Iraqi security forces are still unable to keep Iraqis safe as US troops gradually withdraw.
Ramadi is a former insurgent stronghold in Anbar province about 70 miles west of Baghdad. It has been relatively calm since Sunni tribal leaders revolted against al Qaida in Iraq, but a series of recent attacks in the area have raised concerns about a resurgence of violence before January’s national elections.
In a separate attack, a suicide bomber wearing a police uniform killed four people and wounded 20 others when he detonated an explosive vest at the entrance of a Shia mosque in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northwest of Baghdad, police said.
The attack took place as people gathered to hear an evening sermon after breaking their fast during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. Some of those killed were police.
Baquba is the capital of the restive, ethnically and religiously mixed Diyala province, which has been site of numerous suicide and other attacks as violence across most of Iraq has subsided.
A further attack killed four people when a bomb detonated on a minibus in southern Iraq.
The minibus exploded on the outskirts of the Shia Muslim holy city of Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad.
Despite a sharp drop in violence, Iraq is at a fragile juncture after the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraqi cities at the end of June, a move that raised fears of a return to the sectarian bloodshed that nearly tore Iraq apart in 2006-2007.
US forces are due to halt combat operations entirely next summer and withdraw all forces by the end of 2011.
Twin truck bombings outside government ministries in Baghdad killed nearly 100 people last month, marking Iraq's bloodiest day this year and prompted a reckoning within the government.
Since then, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has stepped up criticism of Syria, where it says Baath leaders have plotted attacks inside Iraq, and demanded the neighbouring country hand over two men believed to have masterminded the attacks.
Syria denies being a safe haven for foreign fighters or militants associated with Saddam Hussein's banned Baath party. The feud has intensified, and both Baghdad and Damascus recalled their ambassadors for consultations.
Without singling out Syria by name, Mr Maliki has also requested a United Nations inquiry into the August bombings and condemned outside forces for backing attacks within Iraq.
Agencies