A suicide bomber blew himself up at a gathering of tribal leaders and local officials in Anbar province on Thursday, killing 15 people and wounding 17 others, a provincial police source said.

The attacker blew up his explosive-belt in the building of the municipal council of the town of Garmah, near the city of Fallujah, when Sunni Arab tribal leaders and local officials were holding a meeting there, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Three policemen and 12 people were killed and some of the wounded were in critical condition, the source said.

Kamal Abdul-Salam, head of the town council, and Mizhir Shawah, chieftain of Jumailah tribe, one of Anbar's large tribes, were among the killed, he said.

U.S. and Iraqi troops immediately cordoned off the area, while ambulances and civilian cars evacuated the victims to a Fallujah hospital, he added.

The attack came days ahead of the handover of the security of Anbar province to Iraqi forces.

Anbar is the country's largest province, expanding from Baghdad all the way west to the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Anbar would be the tenth of Iraq's 18 provinces to return to the control of Iraqi security forces, and also the first Sunni- dominated province to be handed over by the coalition forces.

(Xinhua News Agency June 26, 2008)