At least 18 dead in Iraq suicide bombing

FALLUJA, Iraq - A suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of men waiting to sign up to join the police force in the Iraqi city of Falluja on Wednesday, killing at least 18 people, doctors said.

At least 20 people were wounded, most of them critically. No further details were immediately available.

Falluja, 50 km west of Baghdad, is in the mainly Sunni Arab province of Anbar, a stronghold of the insurgency against US and Iraqi forces.

Insurgents have increasingly been turning their focus from US troops to Iraq's new security forces.

On Tuesday, a suicide bomber drove into the motorcade of Anbar governor Maamoun Sami Rasheed and set off an explosion that killed 10 civilians in the restive provincial capital, Ramadi, west of Falluja.

The governor survived what he said was the ninth attempt on his life unharmed.

A predecessor of Rasheed was kidnapped and killed last year.

Two others resigned, one after his sons were kidnapped. Al Qaeda Islamists and hardline followers of Saddam Hussein vow to kill Sunni Arabs who join the US-sponsored political process.

The US military said on Tuesday Iraqi and US troops had killed more than 100 insurgents last week in Ramadi. Two Iraqi soldiers died but no Americans.

Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki has said he hopes to name a cabinet embracing majority Shi'ite along with Sunnis and Kurds this week, a step many see as vital to quelling the insurgency and stem rising sectarian bloodshed.

The US military says attacks on civilians have almost doubled since a Shi'ite shrine was bombed in February.

- REUTERS