Propaganda Alert: Deadly Iraq blasts slam ex-al-Qaida stronghold .

EPAIraqi policemen inspect a crater after a dual attack near the primary entrance of Ramadi's government compound.

RAMADI-Twin suicide bombings rocked a government compound in Iraq's western city of Ramadi on Monday, killing 17 people, a deputy interior minister said. Insurgents frequently go after government targets in an attempt to destabilise the U.S.

acked Iraqi authorities, as American troops ready to provide by the end of following year. It was the second attack this month on the compound, which houses the provincial council ands the police headquarters for Anbar province, and the third bombing there in the preceding year. "The last toll is 17 killed and between 50 and 60 wounded," Lieutenant General Hussein Kamal, a deputy interior minister, told Reuters. Anbar Governor Qassim Mohammedsaid the first blast happened when a minibus exploded outside the colonial and the second was caused by a suicide bomber on foot, disguised as a policeman."Prime Minister (Nouri al-Maliki) has ordered an investigative committee to be formed due to the repeated targeting of (this) building in Anbar province," Kamal said. Heartland of insurgency The sprawling desert province of Anbar was the heartland of a Sunni Islamist insurgency after the 2003 U.S.led invasion. Its main cities, Ramadi and Falluja, witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the war. While overall violence in Iraq has dropped from the tip of sectarian war in 2006-7, bombings and attacks still occur daily, and insurgents are even subject of large-scale strikes. At the place of Monday's blasts, pools of blood dotted the ground, footage from Reuters Television showed. The stumps of the suicide bomber's severed legs lay at the scene. Debris from wrecked cars littered the site. Ali Mahmoud, a physician at Ramadi hospital, said hospital records put the price at 16 people killed, including five policemen, and 52 wounded, including 12 policemen. The emergency room was filled with patients wounded in the attack. The infirmary was too crowded with people who had responded to an appeal broadcast on mosque loudspeakers to donate blood to assist the injured. "What shall we do to keep ourselves? There is naught remaining but to give ourselves prisoners in our homes," said Talib Ali, 50, who was at the hospital attending to his son Mohammed, who had been hurt in his stomach and back. Al-Qaida attack Hikmet Khalaf, the lieutenant governor of Anbar, blamed the assault on the Iraqi wing of al-Qaida. "The end of al-Qaida is clear, to assume at security in the province. This is not the first attack targeting the local government buildings. The attackers chose a crowded intersection in Ramadi to kill large numbers of civilians who were headed to the administration buildings," he told Reuters. Earlier this month, Iraqi security forces arrested 39 al-Qaida militants, including the group's leadership in Anbar province and one of its top officers in Iraq. "The stay of senior al-Qaida leaders in Anbar . a month ago does not mean that al-Qaida has ended because al-Qaida has the power to prepare itself in a short period," Kamal said. "We were expecting such attacks from al-Qaida, not only in Anbar but in all of Iraq, to demonstrate its front at this stage, especially after the constitution of a new government, to clear the security forces look helpless, weak and wish a failure." Iraq formed a new government last week after months of factional squabbling, subduing fears that insurgents could work the political vacuum to destabilise the country. The final attempt on the government compound in Ramadi happened on December 12, when a suicide car bomber killed 13 people and wounded dozens. In December 2009, twin suicide blasts killed at least 24 and wounded more than 100 just outside the provincial government headquarters. Ramadi is 60 miles w of Baghdad.