Seven killed in Iraq suicide attack on police: ministry

At least seven people were killed and 32 wounded on Thursday in a suicide bombing targeting police officers in Al-Qaim near the Iraq-Syria border, police and officials at the town hospital said.

At least seven people were killed and 32 wounded on Thursday in a suicide bombing targeting police officers in Al-Qaim near the Iraq-Syria border, police and officials at the town hospital said.

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Two children were among the dead, and four houses also collapsed after the car bomb attack near a police station in the town, 450 kilometres (280 miles) west of Baghdad.

A police source said that the toll could rise further, as several victims were trapped under the rubble of the collapsed houses.

Violence has dropped markedly throughout Iraq in recent months, but attacks increased in the run-up to the US military pullback a month ago from urban centres, with 437 Iraqis killed in June -- the highest death toll in 11 months.

Attacks remain particularly common in the capital Baghdad and in the restive northern city of Mosul.