A suicide bomber killed three people at a vote counting center west of Baghdad after polls closed in provincial elections but did not damage any ballots, officials said on Friday.

A suicide bomber killed three people at a vote counting center west of Baghdad after polls closed in provincial elections but did not damage any ballots, officials said on Friday.

At around 9:00 pm (1800 GMT) on Thursday, a militant dressed as a policeman walked into the main vote counting office in Anbar provincial capital Ramadi and blew himself up, security, medical and election officials said.

The attack killed three people and wounded seven, the officials said.

Election workers were getting ready to have dinner at the time, police Colonel
Jabbar al-Dulaimi said.

No ballots were damaged as the count had not yet begun, the head of the local office of Iraq's electoral commission, Khaled Rijab, said.