**At least seven people have been killed in a suicide car bomb blast in the city of Ramadi in western Iraq, police say.**They say a number of people were injured in the explosion at a police checkpoint in the north of the city.
Overall violence across Iraq has fallen in the last two years, but there has been an increase since US troops pulled out of urban areas at the end of June.
Last month, a double truck bombing in the capital Baghdad killed at least 95 people - the deadliest strike in 2009.
The blast near Ramadi, in Anbar province, happened at about 0830 local time (0530 GMT), a local policeman was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
The victims included both police officers and civilians, officials say.
Ramadi - a former insurgent stronghold in Anbar - has been relatively calm since local Sunni tribal leaders sided with the US-led coalition forces in 2006.