Iraq: 23 Killed in Suicide Bombings

It was also reported, twin attacks in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Wednesday killed 23 people and wounded 30, including the governor of Anbar province, the city's main hospital 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 (yards) away hit the convoy of governor Qassim Mohammed Abid as it was leaving, wounding him.

"The latest toll is 23 dead and 30 wounded," said a doctor at Ramadi General Hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The governor is wounded. American forces came and took him for more treatment."

The US military did not immediately confirm that its troops took Abid to a US-run hospital, AFP reports.

In the meantime, state television briefly reported that the governor had been killed in the blast, but those reports were quickly denied by Hikmet Khalaf, his deputy.

The AFP news agency quoted a doctor at Ramadi General Hospital as saying: "The governor is wounded. American forces came and took him for more treatment."

The US military did not immediately confirm that its troops took Abid to a US-run hospital.

Ahmed Rushdi, an independent journalist in Baghdad, told Al Jazeera: "There is now a curfew inside Anbar - [the roads] are only for police cars and ambulances. All the members of the council and the governorate have mild injures."

Anbar province was the heart of Iraq's Sunni uprising following the US-led invasion of Iraqi in 2003 but it became relatively secure after local tribal fighters accepted US-backing in 2006.

But a spate of recent attacks has raised fears that violence will increase ahead of Iraq's general elections in March 2010, Aljazeera.net reports.