AFP - Four people were killed and 22 wounded in a car-bomb blast on Saturday outside the offices of a Sunni Arab party in the western Iraqi city of Fallujah, a police officer said.
   
Security forces had locked down the entire city earlier, preventing individuals and vehicles from entering or exiting in the aftermath of the attack, but later limited that to just the bomb area.
   
The car bombing at 11 am (0800 GMT) targeted the Islamic Party's offices in the city, damaging nearby shops and private health clinics, according to the police major, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
   
He said all of the casualties appeared to be civilians.
   
The security situation in Fallujah -- once a major bastion of the Sunni insurgency -- has improved dramatically in recent months.
   
The attack comes less than a month after US troops withdrew from urban centres in line with a security pact between Baghdad and Washington that calls for American forces to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.
   
Violence had dropped markedly throughout the country in recent months but attacks increased in the run-up to the US military pullback, with 437 Iraqis killed in June -- the highest death toll in 11 months.