Suicide car bombing in Fallujah: 7 killed

Iraqi police say at least seven people have been killed in a suicide truck bombing at a checkpoint in Fallujah - a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.

Photo: Suicide car bombing in Fallujah: 7 killed

Police say the bomber detonated his explosives-filled truck near a line of vehicles waiting at the checkpoint Friday.

In the northern city of Tikrit, at least one policeman was killed and two others wounded in a roadside bomb blast.

Another roadside bomb explosion in Baghdad engulfed an American tank. The U.S. military says the tank crew was not injured.

Thursday, Iraqi authorities hanged 13 insurgents in the first government executions since the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Also on Thursday in Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged Iraqis to form a national unity government to lessen the threat of civil war.

The general who commands U.S. military activities in the Middle East said sectarian tensions in Iraq are at their highest level so far. But he said the security situation in the country is controllable by Iraqi and coalition forces, reports the AP.