The attacks, which hit the western province between 10 pm (1900 GMT) and midnight Tuesday, also wounded a total of 26 police, officials and doctors said on Wednesday.

Violence in Iraq has reached a level not seen since 2008 and militants, including those linked to al-Qaeda, frequently target Iraqi security forces and other government employees.

Four of the attacks struck targets in and around the town of Rutba, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) from the border with war-racked Syria.

A suicide bomber detonated a tanker truck loaded with explosives at a police checkpoint east of the town, while militants armed with heavy weapons struck the police station in Rutba itself and another bomber detonated a vehicle at a police checkpoint to its west.

Those attacks killed 18 police and wounded 25, while three civilians died when another suicide bomber blew up a tanker truck on a bridge west of Rutba.

At about 11 pm on Tuesday, gunmen attacked a police checkpoint at an entrance to Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, killing three more police and wounding a fourth, the sources said.

Gunmen also hit a separate checkpoint in the city, killing another four policemen.

The violence was just the latest in a series of coordinated attacks to hit Anbar province.

On Monday, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at the entrance of the police headquarters in Fallujah, another city in Anbar, while a second struck the nearby electricity department headquarters.

Militants then hit the police headquarters from three sides with gunfire, mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades, entered the electricity department building, and fired on police with sniper rifles.

The violence killed two police, including a major, and wounded four others.

Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan, meanwhile, said the security forces killed five suicide bombers in Fallujah, and that two police were wounded.

NTJ/BA