The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Ramadi , Iraq

Al-Qaeda militants launched a pre-dawn breakout from a police station in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, triggering a shootout that left 13 people dead.

"During an exchange of fire between prisoners trying to escape and police officers in the station, six policemen and seven prisoners were killed," provincial police chief Tareq al-Dulaimi said.

Three prisoners managed to flee but one was re-arrested, Dulaimi said, adding that another four policemen were wounded in the shootout that occurred at 2 am (2300 GMT Thursday) at Forsan police station in the centre of Ramadi. Ramadi police have imposed a curfew in the city following the incident, an interior ministry source said, adding that three fugitive Al-Qaeda militants were "emirs" or local chiefs.

The ministry source said that a prisoner wanting to go to the toilet was escorted from his cell by a policeman at 2 am, kicking off what appeared to be a well-planned operation.

"The policeman was overpowered by the inmate who seized his weapon and shot him," the source said.

"He then opened up the other cells and and he and his fellow prisoners grabbed weapons from the police station's armoury, opening fire on the policemen." The predominantly Sunni Arab city of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, was a key Al-Qaeda stronghold in the aftermath of the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime by US-led forces in 2003.

But since 2006 local Sunni tribes there have sided with the US military to fight the jihadists. Daily violence has dropped dramatically in Anbar province as Al-Qaeda fighters have been pushed out of the region.

Earlier report adds : A car bomb near a popular restaurant in north-western Baghdad killed four people and wounded 25, police said.

A few hours later, a suicide car bomber targeting a US military patrol killed three people and wounded 14 in Muqdadiya, 80 kilometres north-east of Baghdad, police said. The US military said it was checking if there were any US casualities.

The explosion near the restaurant in the Shiite Baghdad district of Shula occurred while policemen and labourers were eating breakfast. Casualties included police officiers and civilians, police said.

The Shiite-led Iraqi government declared Thursday, Christmas Day, a national holiday to show what it said was its solidarity with minority non-Muslim religious groups in Iraq.

Violence has dropped sharply in Iraq, where the US-led invasion in 2003 unleashed years of sectarian and insurgent attacks. However, car bombs, suicide bombings and assassinations are still routine.

A week ago, twin bomb blasts killed 18 people and wounded 53 in central Baghdad.