Iraqi police say eight people have been killed in a suicide attack on a police checkpoint in the western city of Ramadi.

Security sources say a suicide car bomber appeared to drive into the checkpoint Saturday.  At least nine people were wounded, mostly policemen.

Ramadi is a former Sunni insurgent stronghold in western Anbar province which has seen a sharp drop in violence in the past year as local tribes have allied with U.S.-led forces.

Residents inspect the site where a roadside bomb went off, in Sulaikh neighborhood, northeastern Baghdad, Iraq, 08 Nov 2008

In Baghdad, police say a roadside bomb killed one person and wounded seven others.

In other news, the U.S. military said coalition forces captured 22 suspected members and associates of al-Qaida in Iraq in operations today and Friday.

The military said the operations occurred in and around Baghdad, Tikrit, Kirkuk and Mosul.

On Friday, the U.S. military said a senior al-Qaida in Iraq leader, Abu Ghazwan, was killed in a weapons clearing operation north of Baghdad, in the Tarmiyah area.

The military said the operation was carried out by coalition-supported Iraqi security forces and Sons of Iraq, also known as Awakening Councils, the Sunni paramilitary groups composed mainly of former insurgents who now work with U.S. forces to fight al-Qaida in Iraq.

The U.S. military says Ghazwan led many terrorist cells in the Tarmiyah and Taji areas, and that he advised and financed other terrorist cells in northern Iraq.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.