Baghdad - A suicide bomber detonated himself at a dinner west of Baghdad, killing 21 people and wounding 12, media reports said early Monday.

A family threw a banquet in celebration of a relative's release from prison, when a suicide attacker entered the gathering in Abu Ghriab district, 30 kilometres west of Bagdad, and blew up himself, a police source who spoke on condition of anonymity told Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

Four of the wounded are in critical condition, and the casualty count was only preliminary, the source told VOI. (dpa)