Suicide truck bomb kills 20 in Ramadi

Story Highlights

• NEW: Ramadi suicide truck bomber kills 20, wounds 30
• NEW: Iraqi, U.S. forces conduct anti-militia operations in Diwaniya
• Military: Four British troops killed when insurgents attack Humvee outside Basra
• Six U.S. troops killed in separate attacks in and around Baghdad

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Twenty people were killed and 30 others wounded when a suicide truck bomber slammed into an Iraqi police checkpoint in a western Ramadi neighborhood Friday morning, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official told CNN.

Two police officers were among the dead, the official said, and two were wounded.

Ramadi is the provincial capital of the volatile Anbar province and is located about 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, Iraqi and U.S. security forces conducted house-to-house searches Friday morning in Diwaniya, a Shiite-dominated city south of Baghdad, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official told CNN.

The operation was aimed at curbing Shiite militias loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Diwaniya, located about 112 miles south of Baghdad, is a known Shiite militia stronghold.

By 1 p.m. (5 a.m. ET) the official said the operation had been ongoing for eight hours and was not yet completed.

Clashes between the militias and the joint U.S.-Iraqi forces have erupted in some parts of Diwaniya, wounding at least 17 -- including three militia members, the official said. A senior militia member has also been arrested.

Iraqi authorities in the city imposed a curfew early Friday, and the official said the curfew is ongoing until further notice.

Deadly days for the coalition

Ten coalition troops were killed in Iraq over the last two days, four of them in the deadliest attack on British troops since November, the U.S. and British militaries said Thursday.

The four British troops and a civilian translator were ambushed early Thursday as they returned from a mission west of the southern city of Basra, British military spokesman Lt. Col. Kevin Stratford-Wright said.

Insurgents wielding small arms and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the troops' armored Humvee about 340 miles (547 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, said Stratford-Wright. A roadside bomb also was employed in the attack, he said.

The soldiers fired back and "one or more of the attackers were killed," the spokesman said.

A British soldier was hospitalized after being seriously wounded in the fray.

The troops were attacked earlier in the night as well, but they escaped the first attack without casualties, Stratford-Wright said.

The second ambush was the deadliest assault on British troops since insurgents killed four servicemen in an attack on their patrol boat in a Basra waterway.

Basra is the command headquarters for British forces in Iraq.

The number of British troop deaths in the war stands at 140.

The U.S. military also announced Thursday that six of its troops had been killed in the past two days in a string of attacks around Baghdad. (Watch Sen. John McCain as he says Americans aren't getting the full story on Baghdad )

One soldier was killed and two were wounded by a roadside bomb Thursday in the Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.

Two soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb detonated north of the capital Wednesday, the military said. One soldier was wounded in the attack.

Two more soldiers were killed Wednesday and three were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded south of the capital, and another soldier was killed in eastern Baghdad during a firefight with insurgents wielding small arms, the military said.

The number of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq war is 3,260. Seven civilian contractors also have been killed.

TV manager killed in assault

Insurgents attacked a television station aligned with a Sunni political party Thursday, killing an assistant manager and wounding 12 staffers, according to the Iraqi Islamic Party, which owns the station. (Watch a GOP presidential hopeful say, "We can't make Iraqis get along" )

The attackers detonated a car bomb before attacking Baghdad TV with machine guns, said the party, the most powerful Sunni Arab bloc in Iraq.

"The channel committed since the first day to moderate national attitude. It defended Iraqi citizens, regardless the religion and sect. That made the channel distinguishable among other channels in Iraq," the party said.

The Iraqi Islamic Party condemned the strike as a "cowardly criminal attack" and called it a "hopeless attempt to shut down the voice of the true."

Other developments

A U.S. Army helicopter went down Thursday south of Baghdad, injuring four of the nine passengers and crew on board, the U.S. military said. The chopper appeared to be damaged by small-arms fire, a military official said. It wasn't clear whether the gunfire downed the aircraft.

Ten Iraqi soldiers were shot dead Thursday near the northern city of Mosul, an Iraqi army official said. At least 30 attackers in cars used rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns in an assault on an army post , the official said. One soldier was wounded in the attack in Badoosh, more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Mosul.

A week after admitting it made myriad errors in the friendly fire death of former NFL star Pat Tillman, the Army said Wednesday that two soldiers killed in February also may have been killed by their comrades, according to The Associated Press. The Army said it is investigating the deaths of Pvt. Matthew Zeimer, 18, of Glendive, Montana, and Spc. Alan E. McPeek, 20, of Tucson, Arizona, who were killed in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, the AP reported. (Full story)

CNN's Jennifer Deaton, Barbara Starr and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.

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