Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    FALLUJAH, Iraq, May 23 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi policeman was killed and four others were injured in a car bomb explosion in the city of Fallujah in Anbar province on Friday, a provincial police source said.

    "An explosive-laden car went off at about 12:15 p.m. (0915 GMT) while a team of explosive expert police was trying to defuse it near the police station in central Fallujah, killing one of them and wounding four others," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    The powerful blast also damaged parts of the police station and several nearby police vehicles, the source said.

    Earlier, the source said that a roadside bomb detonated near a joint foot patrol of U.S. troops and Iraqi police at the al-Azraggiya neighborhood in northern Fallujah, killing an Iraqi interpreter and wounding two Iraqi policemen.

    Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, has been relatively calm more than a year ago after Sunni tribes and anti-U.S. insurgent groups turn up against al-Qaida in Iraq network, cooperating with the U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces.

    Rifts emerged between predominantly Sunni insurgent groups and the al-Qaida in Iraq organization after the latter adopted a hard line Islam and exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.