At least 23 people were killed and 57 injured, including a provincial governor, in two separate suicide bombings in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported.
The first attack occurred at around 9:30 a.m. local time (06:30 GMT). A suicide bomber in a car blew himself at a traffic junction in the center of the city, the capital of the Anbar province, near administration buildings, the Arabic TV news channel said on its website.
Half an hour later a short distance away, another bomb exploded at the entrance to the provincial government offices, injuring Governor Qassim Mohammed Abid. A local police official was quoted as saying the bomb was detonated by a suicide bomber on foot.
"There is now a curfew inside Anbar - [the roads] are only for police cars and ambulances," journalist Ahmed Rushdi told Al Jazeera from Baghdad, adding that the governor and other officials had "mild injuries."
The Anbar province had been the heartland of support for al-Qaida linked militants following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, before local fighters accepted American backing and joined pro-government forces in 2006.
MOSCOW, December 30 (RIA Novosti)
