A series of coordinated explosions on Sunday rocked the city of Ramadi, capital of western Iraq’s Anbar province, killing 19 people and wounding 81 others, an Interior Ministry source said.

Policemen inspect the site of a twin car bomb in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province in western Iraq, on October 11. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

Security members and firemen were gathering at the parking lot of the compound in the city, some 110 km west of Baghdad, the source said.

The twin car bombing killed seven policemen and 10 civilians, wounding 77 people, he said, adding that more than 30 cars caught fire in the blasts.

Afterwards, a suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden car into a police checkpoint outside the main hospital of Ramadi, the source said.

Policemen opened fire at the driver but failed to stop him, said the source, adding that he blew up the car, killing two policemen and wounding four others.

The third blast was apparently targeting the casualties of the twin car bombings at the provincial council compound who were transferred to the main hospital of Ramadi for treatment, the source added.

“Eighty percent of the wounded were policemen and 10 percent of the injured were in a critical condition,” the source said.

Following the attacks, the provincial authorities intensified security measures and imposed curfew as security members were deployed in the streets of the city, he added.

The provincial authorities also announced 10 million Iraqi dinars (about 9,000 U.S. dollars) as the bonus for anyone who provides information leading to those behind the attacks.

The attacks are the latest sign of the fragile security in Iraq’s largest province of Anbar, following two deadly attacks this month in the province.

On Oct. 5, a suicide car bomb blast killed six mourners and wounded 15 others at a funeral in the city of Haditha. Later, nine people were killed and 31 others injured when a car bomb ripped through an outdoor popular market in the town of Amriyat al-Fallujah near Fallujah city, some 50 km west of Baghdad.

The once volatile province of Anbar has been relatively calm for more than two years after Sunni tribes and anti-U.S. insurgent groups turned to cooperate with the U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces against al-Qaida in Iraq network.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet