Ten people were killed when gunmen wearing explosive belts stormed a police building in the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday, police and provincial officials said.
The attack in mainly Sunni Anbar province followed several weeks of bombings targeting Shia after the eruption of a political crisis that has threatened to break up the coalition government and raised fears of renewed sectarian violence.
The assault in Ramadi, a onetime al Qaeda hotspot where militants frequently attack government facilities, provided a new test for Iraqi security forces without the support of US troops, the last of which pulled out in mid-December, nearly nine years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Six gunmen, three policemen and a civilian died in the assault on the Ramadi police building, which houses an anti-terrorism unit and a jail, and 18 other people were wounded, police and hospital sources said.