FALLUJA, Iraq - A minibus bomb exploded at a market in the western Iraqi town of Amiriya on Tuesday, killing at least nine people and wounding 31, a local official said.

At least five of the dead from the blast were police, Sharqiya al-Isawi, leader of Amiriya town council, said. Police said a number of cars were set ablaze by the explosion.

Amiriya lies about 25 km (15 miles) south of the city of Falluja, in western Anbar province.

It was the second big bomb in the large desert province of Anbar in as many days. On Monday, a suicide bomber walked into an Iraqi funeral tent and blew himself up in the western town of Haditha, killing at least six mourners.

Anbar province was once the epicenter of a Sunni Arab insurgency. Though it has calmed down since then, militants still strike it periodically with spectacular bomb attacks, usually aimed at civilians or Iraqi security forces.

(Reporting by Fadhel al-Badrani; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Charles Dick)

Iraq