A car bomb went off in the city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, on Tuesday, killing a civilian and wounding 18 people, an Interior Ministry source said.
The attack apparently targeted a police patrol which was passing by in central Ramadi, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity, reported Xinhua.
Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, is the capital of Anbar province which once was a main stronghold for insurgent groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq network, since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
The province has been calm for nearly two years after local Sunni tribes allied with U.S. forces and Iraqi security forces, turning their rifles against the al-Qaida militants who were accused of adopting hard line of Islam, killing thousands of Iraqis indiscriminately.
Earlier in the day, the police said that two bomb attacks occurred in Baghdad, one targeted a group of construction workers and another hit the convoy of Iraqi Minister of Water and Resources, who escaped unhurt.
The blasts killed three construction workers and wounded a total of 31 people, they said.
The attacks came three weeks after U.S. troops pulled out of Iraqi cities and towns in line with a security pact signed late last year between Baghdad and Washington.