The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Ramadi

Five civilians were killed on Saturday when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a police checkpoint near the western Iraqi town of Ramadi, police said.

Three police officers were wounded in the midday attack, Ramadi police chief Major General Tariq al-Duleimi told AFP.

Another four policemen and two civilians were wounded by a bomb that exploded near a patrol passing through eastern Ramadi, according to Khalaf al-Salim, a local police officer.

Ramadi is one of the main towns in the western Anbar province, a one-time bastion of the Sunni insurgency that has seen a sharp drop-off in violence over the past year as local tribes have allied with US-led forces.

In Baghdad, a civilian was killed and seven others, including a policemen, were wounded by a roadside bomb, according to police.

Another roadside bomb hit a health ministry vehicle in downtown Baghdad, wounding the driver and two civilians, while a similar device in the Al-Jamiaa neighbourhood wounded three people, including a policeman.

According to the Iraqi military, the number of car bombings in Baghdad has declined sharply, falling from a total of 415 in 2006 to 61 so far in 2008, despite a string of attacks in the last week.

The US military says the capital has become much safer since the launch last year of a joint Iraqi-US security plan, averaging four attacks a day, 89 percent fewer than in 2006 and 83 percent less than in 2007.