A car bomb killed at least six people, including women and children, in the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Wednesday in a rare attack on a region that has become one of the safest in the country. Major Mohammed Arak said a parked car exploded outside a courthouse being guarded by police in the middle of Ramadi, capital of western Anbar province.
A separate police source said a suicide car bomber was responsible.
TWO BRITISH TROOPS KILLED:
Two British military personnel were killed in Iraq on Tuesday when their Puma helicopter crashed near Baghdad, the Ministry of Defence said. "Two other personnel were seriously injured, but are now recovering in hospital. It is too early to speculate on the cause of the crash," the MoD said in a statement on Wednesday, adding the families of those killed had been informed.
"Most of the people who were killed or wounded were civilians. I saw at least six bodies, mostly women and children," Arak told Reuters, adding the death toll could rise.
A third police source put the death toll at four, with 15 wounded. The number of car bombs and other attacks in Anbar has plunged since Sunni Arab tribal sheikhs joined forces with the US military to drive al Qaeda militants out of a region that had once been the heart of the Sunni Arab insurgency in Iraq.