At least 19 Iraqis were killed and some 35 others wounded in a suicide car bomb attack on a restaurant on a highway near Ramadi west of Baghdad, local police said.

Reports reaching here from Ramadi quoted local police as saying that the incident took place at about 2:30 PM (11:30 GMT) in the western Ramadi district of al-Taamim while a pickup truck loaded with explosives and chlorine powder was destroyed in a controlled explosion, causing the grave casualties.

Other media reports confirmed the bombing attack, but gave different figures, saying three car bombs exploded in quick succession in Ramadi on Monday, killing 15 people and wounding more than 28.

Ramadi, the capital of volatile Anbar province, has long been a bastion of the Sunni Arab insurgency.

Daily bombings still prevail across the war-torn Iraq, despite the US-Iraqi forces' crackdown on violence and insurgency in line with the US new Iraqi plan.

Earlier on Monday, a suicide car bomb struck a police station in the city of Baquba, 65 km northeast of the Iraqi capital, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 20 others, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Two other suicide attacks also hit a restaurant in Baghdad and an office of a Kurdish party north of Mosul City in northern Iraq, killing a total of 12 people and wounding more than 30 others.

Also on Monday, nine US soldiers were killed and 20 others wounded in a suicide car bombing against a patrol base northeast of Baghdad, the military said.

The attack took place in Diyala province. The nine US soldiers died of injuries sustained in the blast, the military said.

Of the 20 wounded, 15 soldiers were treated and returned to duty while five others were sent to a medical facility for further treatment, the military said.

More than 3,260 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003, according to media count based on Pentagon figures.

(Xinhua News Agency April 24, 2007)