Baghdad, Oct 19 (DPA) At least four people were injured in the western Iraqi city of Falluja Monday when a man detonated explosives packed in his car, police said.
The blast, which targeted a police patrol in the eastern Falluja neighbourhood of al-Karama, injured three policemen and a civilian bystander, police told Baghdad’s Aswat al-Iraq news agency, adding that the number of confirmed casualties was likely to rise.

The bomber was thought to have been killed in the explosion.

Falluja, which lies in Iraq’s Sunni heartland 45 km west of Baghdad, was formerly the site of some of the worst fighting between insurgents and Iraqi and US forces.

The city and surrounding areas had been relatively quiet since US and Iraqi forces enticed many insurgents and former Iraqi soldiers to join government-allied Sahwa, or “Awakening,” militias with promises of money, guns, training and jobs in the interior ministry.

But the area has been the site of deadly attacks targeting police and those who work with the government in recent weeks and months.

Last week bombings destroyed two bridges near the city, including an important bridge on the highway linking Iraq with Jordan and Syria.

Those attacks came amid tightened security after a coordinated series of bomb blasts left 22 people dead and 45 wounded outside a meeting on national reconciliation in the nearby city of al-Ramadi.