A suicide bomber blew himself up among a crowd of men waiting to sign up to join the police force in the Iraqi city of Falluja yesterday, killing at least 18 people, doctors said. At least 20 people were wounded, most of them critically. No further details were immediately available.

Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, is in the mainly Sunni Arab province of Anbar, a stronghold of the insurgency against US and Iraqi forces.

Insurgents have increasingly been turning their focus from US troops to Iraq’s new security forces.

On Tuesday, a suicide bomber drove into the motorcade of Anbar governor Maamoun Sami Rasheed and set off an explosion that killed 10 civilians in the restive provincial capital, Ramadi, west of Falluja.

The governor survived what he said was the ninth attempt on his life unharmed.