Fallujah: Car bombers killed at least 19 people in a former rebel bastion today as Iraq's security pact with Washington won final approval before it takes effect at the end of the month. The presidential council gave its blessing to the landmark pact, which requires that all US troops withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011 and was made possible in part by dramatic improvements in security over the past year.

But at least 19 people were killed and dozens wounded in two suicide car bombings targeting Iraqi police posts in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah today in a brutal reminder of the country s lingering violence. Twelve of those killed were police officers, and another 43 people were injured, according to the Fallujah police, who corrected a higher toll of wounded given by the interior ministry. One of the attacks targeted a police station that was formerly a schoolhouse in a crowded residential area, causing several houses to collapse on the people inside. Salman Salem had left to go shopping for new clothes for his children ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha just before the bomb went off.

He heard the blast, saw the smoke, and returned to find that his house had collapsed. "I stood there with the clothes in my hands and thought I would never see my family again," he said. "I later found out that one of my children died and the other two, along with my wife, were wounded." Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Baghdad, is one of the main cities in the western province of Anbar, which was the epicentre of the Sunni-led rebellion against US forces in the months following the March 2003 invasion.

Source : PTI