RAMADI: Eighteen people were killed and 35 wounded, including the governor of Anbar province, in two attacks in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi today, the city’s mortuary said.

The first attack struck near a security checkpoint at a road junction leading to the governorate offices in the centre of the Anbar provincial capital at around 9:30 am (0630 GMT). A separate bombing 30 minutes later at the entrance to the governorate building some 200 metres away hit the convoy of governor Qassim Mohammed Abid as it was leaving, wounding him. An official at the Ramadi mortuary, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it had received 18 corpses from the twin explosions.

Police and doctors had earlier put the death toll at 10, with 35 wounded, including women and children.