Nine killed in Iraq suicide bombing

A suicide bomber blew himself up in a town in western Iraq on Friday, killing at least eight civilians and a soldier, officers said.

He was one of a group of four suicide bombers who infiltrated a neighbourhood of Al-Baghdadi, a town on the Euphrates River in the restive western province of Anbar.

"Army forces were able to kill three suicide bombers after trapping them in a house in the Martyrs neighbourhood by detonating their belts with gunfire," a senior police officer said.

"The fourth managed to hide and later blow himself up in the midst of a group of civilians and soldiers," Firstpost cited the officer as saying.

The police officer and a local district official said that nine people were killed in the blast, while another 11 people were wounded.