Ramadi: A suicide bomber blew
himself up inside a bank in the northwestern Iraqi city of
Haditha on Thursday, killing nine people including three policemen,
the town's mayor said.
Eight other people, all civilians, were wounded in
the midday blast at a branch of the state-owned Al-Rafidain
bank in Haditha, 210 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, Mayor
Bassim Naji said.
"Nine people have been killed in the suicide attack
at Al-Rafidain bank," Naji told reporters.
A police major in the town, speaking on condition
of anonymity, said that along with the three policemen, five
male civilians and one woman were killed. He said two women
were among the wounded.
"The explosion happened at about mid-day when the
bank was filled with people," the major said. "The suicide
bomber entered and blew himself up among the people."
The blast in Haditha was the first major attack in
the town since October 5, 2009, when a suicide bomber killed
five people at a funeral. And on August 2 of that year, a car
bomb in the town killed four women and three children.
Haditha in the western Sunni Arab province of Anbar
was one of several towns along the Euphrates valley that also
became al Qaeda strongholds after the 2003 US-led invasion
that ousted Saddam Hussein.
Since 2006, however, local Sunni tribes have sided
with the US military and unrest has dwindled in Anbar as rebel
fighters have been ejected from the region.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, March 03, 2011, 22:52