Suicide blast kills 6 in Iraq

A car bomb killed at least six people Wednesday in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, shattering the calm of an area that in recent months had been considered one of the safest in the country.

Ramadi police officials said the suicide bombing occurred in late morning near the city’s courthouse. There are conflicting reports on the number of dead, but women, children and at least one policeman were reported to be among the fatalities. At least 30 civilians were injured, Iraqi police said.

“The attacker’s body was ripped into pieces and his car was completely destroyed, damaging 10 civilian cars,” a police official said.

The attack was believed to be the most significant breach of security in central Ramadi in months. The capital of Anbar province, Ramadi has become one of the country’s quietest cities since Sunni Arab tribal leaders late last year turned on insurgents and began cooperating with U.S. and Iraqi security forces.

Military officials in Anbar say the number of attacks in Ramadi has dropped from about 25 to 30 a day in January to less than one a day, and that roadside bombings have declined 98% since February. They attribute the change to the tribal leaders’ influence, which has prompted several thousand local men to join the provincial police force, and to the additional U.S. troops sent there in February as part of a security clampdown across Iraq.

Iraqi and U.S. military officials have warned, however, that insurgents linked to the group Al Qaeda in Iraq who once controlled Ramadi could attempt a comeback by staging attacks such as the bombing Wednesday at the courthouse.

“We always said that there is [Al Qaeda in Iraq] left in Anbar and that they are degraded to a point that all they could do is the random spectacular attack,” said Maj. Jeffrey Pool, a spokesman for the Marines. “Today’s bombing is just that.”

Also Wednesday, three soldiers -- two Britons and one American -- were reported killed. The British military said that two of its soldiers died when a Royal Air Force helicopter crashed Tuesday near Baghdad. Two others were injured.

Military officials did not state the cause of the crash, which brought to at least 173 the number of British troops killed in Iraq since March 2003, according to the independent monitoring group icasualties.org.

An American died Tuesday in a bomb blast in Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The soldier’s name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin and release by the Department of Defense. At least 3,874 U.S. troops have died since the start of the war, according to the website.

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ann.simmons@latimes.com

tina.susman@latimes.com

Times staff writer Doug Smith in Baghdad and a special correspondent in Ramadi contributed to this report.