Baghdad - A man detonated explosives packed in his car as he approached a checkpoint in Falluja Tuesday, killing an Iraqi security officer and wounding nine other people, police said.

Falluja, some 70 kilometres west of Baghdad, was the site of intense fighting between US forces and Sunni insurgents, but has been quiet in recent months, thanks in part to the cooperation of Sunni militias known as "Awakening Councils" that joined with US and Iraqi authorities to fight insurgents there.

Tuesday's bombing comes a day after six consecutive blasts targeting predominantly Shiite neigbhourhoods of Baghdad killed at least 36 people and wounded more than 100 others.

Those bombings preceded Tuesday's 62nd anniversary of the founding of the Baath Party, leading Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to call them "a gift" from the Baath Party to Iraq to mark its "doomed anniversary." (dpa)