At least 38 people were killed in two bombing attacks in Iraq Thursday, 20 of them killed as they held an anti-al Qaeda meeting, officials said. The suicide bomber blew himself up in a municipal office in western Iraq\'s Anbar province, killing the local mayor and at least 19 senior members of an anti-al Qaeda front, according to Iraqi officials, cited by AFP.
The attack, in which more than 20 people were also wounded, took place in the town of Garma, near Fallujah, the town council spokesman Kamal al-Ayash conveyed. According to him, the bomber detonated his explosive vest in the office of mayor Kamal al-Abdali as he was huddled in a meeting with members of an anti-al Qaeda \"Awakening\" group around noon (0900 GMT).
Elsewhere, a car bomb ripped through the northern city of Mosul, killing 18, Iraqi and US officials said. The US military said initial reports indicated that 17 Iraqi civilians and a policeman died, while 71 civilians and nine policemen were hurt in the car bomb attack.
Meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed an American soldier in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Thursday, bringing to eight the number of American troops killed in Iraq this week. According to Reuters, a military statement said the soldier was killed on Wednesday by an armour-piercing roadside bomb called an explosively formed projectile.
