BAGHDAD, Dec 22: Nine people were killed and 13 wounded on Wednesday when a suicide bomber rammed a car into an Iraqi forces checkpoint south of Baghdad, a National Guard officer said by telephone from the scene.

The Guardsman said a suicide attacker drove his vehicle at high speed into the checkpoint, on the north eastern entrance to the town of Latifiya. Traffic was heavy at the time.

The blast destroyed around five civilian cars. National Guards and police manning the checkpoint, near the main road linking Baghdad to the south, as well as civilians were among the dead, he said.

Latifiya is part of a dangerous cluster of towns southwest of the capital, where insurgents and bandits rule the streets, setting up impromptu checkpoints and killing anyone they suspect to be working with US-led forces they want out of Iraq. -Reuters