BAGHDAD, May 14: At least 18 people were killed and 35 wounded in a suicide bombing on Wednesday at a funeral vigil just west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, security officials said.

“One man detonated his explosives in front the mourners,” a security official said. “Eighteen people were killed and 35 were wounded. All the victims are men.” The suicide attack was around 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) in Al-Anbar province.

The region had been a stronghold of Al Qaeda in Iraq, and the provincial capital Ramadi was proclaimed in 2006 the capital of the “Islamic state of Iraq” by the jihadis.

Since then, tribal fighters there have allied themselves with US troops to battle Al Qaeda under a deal that saw a sharp decline in violence in the area since last year.

However, there had been sporadic attacks. Earlier this month four US soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb attack.

Earlier on Wednesday, an Iraqi army soldier was killed and seven others wounded in another suicide bombing by a woman at a town just south of Baghdad, the US military said. —AFP