FALLUJA – Two bombs exploded near a crowded market in the Iraqi city of Falluja on Monday, killing up to six people and injuring about two dozen, security and hospital sources said. The first blast killed two police officers with a bomb disposal unit that had been sent to dismantle a car bomb, and a second device exploded shortly after the first, killing four civilians, an Interior Ministry source said. A police officer who asked not to be identified said the first explosion was caused by a roadside bomb, followed by a car bomb.
“The roadside bomb exploded on a main road near a crowded market. When people gathered to evacuate casualties a nearby car bomb exploded,” the officer said.
Falluja Hospital spokesman Nadhum Hadeed said it had received five bodies and 25 injured people, and needed blood donations to treat the injured.
Falluja, located in Iraq’s mainly Sunni western province of Anbar about 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting at the peak of Iraq’s sectarian warfare.
In Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded in the southeastern district of Jisr Diyala, killing at least three people and injuring 11, an Interior Ministry source said.
