Ramadi (Iraq), Sep 24 (IANS) At least 12 people were killed and 17 others wounded in bomb attacks targeting the security forces and senior officials in Iraq’s western province of Anbar Tuesday, Xinhua reported citing a provincial police source.
In one of the attacks, a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car at the entrance of the house of Waqass Adnan, mayor of the city of Aana, some 250 km west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The huge blast was immediately followed by a coordinated attack on the security personnel guarding the residence, apparently in an attempt to break into the house, the source said.
The gunfight resulted in the deaths of four policemen and a brother of the mayor and injuries to four policemen, while the mayor himself escaped unharmed, the source said, adding that four of the gunmen were also killed.
Meanwhile, another suicide bomber rammed his explosives-packed car and blew it up at the entrance of Aana police station, killing two policemen and wounding three others, the source said.
In a separate incident, gunmen fired four mortar rounds at a police station in the nearby city of Rawa, about 255 km west of Baghdad, killing a policeman and wounding seven others, he said.
In addition, gunmen blew up a booby-trapped car under the bridge between the two cities of Aana and Rawa destroying a part of the bridge.
Ziad Tariq, an officer in Anbar’s provincial operations command, escaped unharmed a roadside bomb explosion near his convoy in the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 100 km west of Baghdad, but three of his bodyguards were wounded.
Insurgent attacks continue in the volatile Sunni Arab area west of Baghdad that stretches through Anbar province to Iraq’s western borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.