Seven Iraqi police officers killed after gunmen storm government compound

Three-hour standoff with security forces after insurgents detonate car bomb at prison for terror suspects in Ramadi
Iraqi security forces inspect the scene
Iraqi security forces inspect the scene of the car bomb attack in front of a government compound in Ramadi Photograph: AP

Iraqi security forces battled gunmen who detonated a car bomb before blasting their way into a government compound and killing seven policemen, police and local government officials said.

The three-hour standoff between Shia-dominated security forces and suspected Sunni insurgents in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, marked the first serious gun battle for Iraqi forces against insurgents without American backup since the US military completed its withdrawal last month.

Five gunmen wearing military uniforms and explosive-rigged vests stormed a compound, which houses Ramadi police headquarters and several federal security agencies, including an anti-terrorism police taskforce and a detention facility where terrorism suspects are interrogated.

Before reaching the compound, the gunmen set off an explosives-filled car in the eastern part of the city, in an apparent effort to draw security personnel from the heavily guarded government area, according to an Anbar government official. Comrades of the attackers were being held there on suspicion of involvement in terror attacks.

One policeman was killed and three others were injured in the blast, police and health officials said.

Sadoun Obaid al-Jumaily, the deputy president of the Anbar Provincial Council, said the gunmen drove to the entrance of the compound. Four got out of the car and clashed with the police.

Security forces killed two attackers, and two managed to get into the building where the suspected insurgents were being held.

"They came to free their colleagues … that were recently detained," Jumaily said. He said two gunmen got on to the roof of the building. They were killed after an hour-long fight with security forces.

The fifth attacker was killed in the blast, Jumaily said.

Six policemen were killed in the gunfight and 13 others were wounded.

Violence has surged since American troops left, and Iraq was plunged into a political crisis after the Shia-dominated government charged the Sunni vice-president, Tariq al-Hashemi, with running death squads, issuing an arrest warrant against him just as the last US soldiers crossed into neighbouring Kuwait.

On Sunday, a court in Baghdad ruled that Hashemi must stand trial on terror charges in Baghdad, rejecting his request to be tried in the ethnically mixed city in Kirkuk. He has fled to the autonomous Kurdish region.

Hashimi's Iraqiya party has been boycotting parliament and cabinet sessions since last month to protest against what it sees as efforts by the Shia prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to consolidate power.

The sectarian crisis in the government and the spike in attacks, including a bombing on Saturday that killed more than 50 pilgrims during a Shia procession, has raised concerns Iraq could return to the sectarian bloodshed that killed tens of thousands of civilians after the 2003 US-led invasion and brought the country to the brink of civil war.