Global General

Toll rises to 7 in Iraq suicide truck bombing

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-13 23:51

FALLUJAH, Iraq: The death toll from the suicide truck bomb attack in western Iraq's Anbar province on Wednesday rose to seven and six people were wounded, a provincial police source said.

"Our reports said that up to seven were killed and six others injured in the suicide truck bomb attack in the town of Saqlawiyah earlier in the day," the source said on condition of anonymity.

The attack took place in the morning when a suicide bomber drove his explosive rigged truck into the town hall building which recently became a police station after the local government moved to another building in Saqlawiyah, some 65 km west of Baghdad, the source said.

The attacker could not reach the building which is protected by barricades and hit a concrete barrier at the entrance, the source added.

Five of the killed were policemen and four others were among the wounded, he said.

Authorities in the town imposed curfew for several hours after the attack as Iraqi security forces sealed off the scene and dozens others deployed on main streets and intersections and blocked the entrances of the town, he added.

Insurgent attacks increased recently in the once volatile province of Anbar, which has been relatively calm for more than two years after Sunni tribes and anti-US insurgent groups turned to cooperate with the US troops and Iraqi security forces against al-Qaida network in Iraq.