FT Chronicle

BAGHDAD – A suicide car bomber killed four people and wounded 29 others when his vehicle exploded in a busy street Monday during the morning rush hour in western Iraq.

The blast took place shortly before 9 a.m. near a central thoroughfare in Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad. The city was once at the heart of the Sunni insurgency in the western Anbar province until tribal leaders turned against al-Qaida in Iraq, a turning point of the war.

The street was crowded with pedestrians, stalls selling tea and day laborers gathering for work when the blast occurred, a Fallujah police officer said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. Blood pooled around charred and mangled wrecks of several cars destroyed by the blast.