A suicide car bomb exploded outside a restaurant frequented by Iraqi police outside Ramadi, killing 17 people and wounding dozens more today.
A hospital source said a high-ranking police officer was among the many policemen killed and wounded in the blast.
The attack took place in an area where local Sunni Arab tribes have taken a stand against al-Qaeda, the latest in a string of such attacks in the western province of Anbar in recent months.
US commanders say police and army recruitment in Anbar has risen sharply since several tribes agreed to back efforts to fight al-Qaeda in the mainly Sunni Arab province that has been a hotbed of the anti-American insurgency.
Elsewhere in Iraq, four people, including the son of an anti-al-Qaeda tribal leader, were killed in an insurgent attack on the chief's home just west of Baghdad. Relatives blamed al-Qaeda for the attack.
Earlier today, the US military said it has captured two leaders of a major car bomb group they accuse of being responsible for attacks that killed around 900 Iraqis and injured 2,000 more. The US military said the two men were caught during operations in Adhamiya, a mainly Sunni Arab area in northern Baghdad, on March 21st.
US and Iraqi forces are engaged in a major security crackdown in Baghdad aimed at stopping sectarian violence that has been killing hundreds of people a week in recent months.
US commanders have said the crackdown has succeeded in substantially reducing the number of people killed by sectarian death squads, but car bombs and other bombings have remained a problem, and US forces have stepped up efforts to disrupt insurgent cells responsible for them.
The Iraqi government and US commanders say al-Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups are responsible for most of the major car bomb attacks in Baghdad.