BAGHDAD — Efforts to improve security in Al Anbar province, long the primary stronghold of the Sunni Arab insurgency, suffered a setback Thursday when suicide bombers detonated explosives at a police recruitment center in Fallouja and a police station in Ramadi. At least 20 people were killed and 31 injured, police and witnesses said.
Meanwhile, American military officials reported the deaths of three more U.S. soldiers, two killed Wednesday in a roadside bombing in Baghdad and one who died of wounds from an explosion Tuesday northwest of the capital. The deaths of 227 soldiers have been reported for April and May, the deadliest two-month period since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The suicide attacks in Al Anbar were the latest in a steady series against the followers of tribal sheiks who have spurned Al Qaeda in Iraq insurgents and are cooperating with the government. Last week, a Fallouja tribal leader was slain and his funeral procession the next day was bombed, killing 30 mourners.
The number of police recruits in the province has risen rapidly in the last year, from the low hundreds in each city to the thousands today, military officials said. The trend has offered a beacon of hope in an area with few essential services.
"Today's incident is absolutely another indication of the brutal people in the Qaeda organization," military spokesman Army Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said. "They are trying to drive a wedge between the people and the security forces."
The U.S. military, Iraqi army and police were running the recruitment center with members of the Anbar Salvation Council, the coalition of Sunni tribes opposed to foreign Islamist militants.
A Fallouja police source and a witness, who both declined to be named for security reasons, said the explosion occurred about 10:30 a.m. when a man wearing an explosives vest reached an area near cadets and police recruiters. The attack in Ramadi was carried out by a truck bomber, witnesses said.
The police officer in Fallouja attributed the incidents to the desperation of local members of Al Qaeda in Iraq, as the group builds strongholds elsewhere in the country, especially in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.
"They are rapidly losing ground in Anbar and have been pushed out gradually, now there are only a few elements remaining, mostly in Fallouja," the officer said.
The Iraqi Ministry of Health, meanwhile, released May figures that showed a steep uptick in the number of civilians killed.
