FALLUJA – A suicide car bomber killed 13 people and wounded dozens near government buildings in the mainly Sunni Iraqi city of Ramadi yesterday, police and hospital sources said.
The attack came as Iraqi political leaders moved towards forming a new government and just days before one of the most religious days for Shias.
A police official and a hospital source said 13 people were killed and 41 wounded in the blast in western Anbar province, once a stronghold of al-Qaeda.
Hikmet Khalaf, the deputy governor of Anbar, said the blast in central Ramadi, 100km west of Baghdad, targeted a complex in which the provincial council is based. “It [the explosion] was at a crowded crossroad. There were civilian vehicles passing and it is also the entrance to the main government offices,” Mr Khalaf said.
The sprawling desert province of Anbar was the heartland of a Sunni Islamist insurgency after the 2003 US-led invasion.
Its main cities, Ramadi and Falluja, witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the war, but local Sunni tribal chiefs turned on al-Qaeda, helping US forces bring relative peace to the region.
Last December, twin suicide blasts killed at least 24 and wounded more than 100 just outside the provincial government headquarters in Ramadi. The governor of Anbar province was critically wounded in one of the attacks, but survived.
Iraq has been without a new government since an inconclusive election in March. The main factions argued for months before reaching a deal last month that includes all major parties. – (Reuters)