By AGENCIES
BAGHDAD: A suicide car bomb exploded Thursday outside the gate of the main government compound in the capital of Iraq's Anbar province, killing at least 13 people, including four police, a health official said.
The attacker detonated his explosive-packed car at the compound housing the governor's office, police headquarters and courts in downtown Ramadi.
The province, where Al-Qaeda-backed insurgents once held sway, has seen a rise in attacks against security forces and government officials in recent months. The incident also comes amid fears that next month's elections will stoke political violence. The blast also wounded at least 26 people, said Dr. Khudhair Khalaf, the director of the provincial health authority.
Debris from the car bomb could be seen strewn on the bloodstained pavement in front of the compound, along with slippers and a red-checkered traditional tribal headdress.
The force of the explosion damaged two civilian cars and a police vehicle and shattered the windows of a nearby restaurant.
Anbar was the site of some of the war's most intense fighting between US forces and insurgents in the key cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, though the province is comparatively peaceful now.
The government compound in Ramadi was once the scene of daily attacks during the height of the insurgency in 2005 and 2006, with the governor hunkered down in his office protected by a platoon of US Marines while insurgent mortar shells rained down.
By the end of 2006, many former insurgents began to rebel against Al-Qaeda, and joined forces with the US military, who paid fighters to participate in pro-government Awakening Councils.
The decision by the Awakening Councils to join with US forces against Al-Qaeda is seen as one of the key reasons for the drop in violence in Iraq.
Insurgent attacks continue, however, and may even be on the rise. On Dec. 30 twin bombings in Ramadi killed 23 people and badly wounded the governor.
In Mosul, a car bomb near a police station in the center of Iraq's main northern city of Mosul wounded 22 people including 15 police, security and medical officials said on Thursday.
The blast occurred around 5:15pm (1415 GMT), after the car had been left near a line of T-walls — blast-proof concrete barriers — surrounding a police station which has many shops nearby, an officer said.
A doctor at a Mosul hospital said 22 people had been wounded, 15 of them police.
Arab News
