Anti-terror chief among 7 killed in Iraq blasts

Three bombs exploded in a residential area near Ramadi in Iraq's western Anbar province on Thursday, killing seven people including an Iraqi Army anti-terrorist special forces commander and members of his family, police said.

"At 3:00 am, men planted bombs around the bedrooms of four houses belonging to members of the police force, including Major Walid al-Heeti, the head of Heet's anti-terror department," said Lt. Col. Fadhil Nimrawi, the head of the town's emergency response unit.

"The bombs killed seven people, including the anti-terror chief, and wounded six others, including women and children from the four families."

The dead included Heeti's wife and mother, a child, and three other police officers, Nimrawi said.

The four houses are in different neighborhoods across the centre of Heet, a town around 60 kilometers (40 miles) west of the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi.

No vehicles are being allowed in or out of Heet, Nimrawi said, as part of ramped up security in the town.

The bombs killed seven people, including the anti-terror chief, and wounded six others, including women and children from the four families

Lt. Col. Fadhil Nimrawi