Baghdad - Six people were killed and 17 injured when four bombs exploded on Thursday in quick succession in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, a local government official said.
Two of the blasts were caused by suicide car bombers, Anbar Province Deputy Governor Hikmet Khalaf told Reuters. He blamed the attacks on the al-Qaeda militant Islamist group.
An interior ministry source in Baghdad put the death toll at nine killed and 27 wounded.
Two roadside bombs exploded first at a military checkpoint between the main market and the provincial government offices at Ramadi, 100km west of Baghdad. Shortly afterwards a car bomb was detonated nearby by the vehicle's driver.
A fourth bomb, also a suicide car bomb, went off near the hospital where military and civilian rescuers were rushing to bring the victims for treatment, Khalaf said.
“Al-Qaeda is behind these attacks. They always carry out multiple explosions to inflict as heavy casualties as possible on the security forces and civilians,” Khalaf added.
He complained of what he called “security failures”.
The sprawling desert province of Anbar was the heartland of a Sunni Islamist insurgency after the 2003 US-led invasion. Its main cities, Ramadi and Falluja, witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the war.
While overall violence in Iraq has dropped from the height of sectarian warfare in 2006-7, bombings still occur daily and insurgents are still capable of carrying out lethal attacks almost eight years after the US-led invasion.
In February, a suicide bomber blew himself up during a ceremony in a cultural centre in Ramadi, killing 15 people and wounding 21. - Reuters