Suicide car bomb kills 4 schoolchildren in Iraq

Iraqi officials say a suicide car bomb has killed four schoolchildren in Anbar province west of the capital, Baghdad.

A provincial spokesman, Mohammed Fathi, says the bomb exploded on Monday near a primary school in the centre of the town of Hit, shortly after a police patrol passed by.

The spokesman says the blast also wounded six children. Hit is 140 kilometres west of Baghdad.

The bombing comes a day after the start of the new school year in Iraq.

Violence has ebbed in Iraq, but insurgents still carry out frequent attacks on civilians and security forces in an attempt to shake the trust in the Shiite-led government.