Six police among 13 killed in Iraq suicide attacks

Source Agence France Presse

Suicide attacks targeting a police checkpoint and a Shiite Muslim procession in western and central Iraq on Sunday killed up to 13 people, including six policemen and a journalist. The violence comes two weeks ahead of a deadline for Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki to form a cabinet in a bid to end months of government impasse, and days before the climax of the Shiite commemoration ceremony of Ashura on Friday. In the western city of Ramadi, a suicide bomber detonated a car packed with explosives near Anbar provincial government offices, killing 11 people, including six policemen, a doctor said. The blast occurred at around 10:00 am (0700 GMT) at a police checkpoint in the centre of the city, 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad, and left 41 people wounded, according to police Major Rahim Zabin and a doctor at Ramadi hospital. "A suicide car bomb targeted a police checkpoint in the centre of the city, about 200 metres (yards) from the Anbar government offices," Zabin said. A doctor at Ramadi hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity, put the toll at 11 dead and 41 wounded.