RAMADI, Iraq, May 20 (Reuters) - A truck bomb laden with chlorine gas exploded before it rammed into a police checkpoint near the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday, making 11 people sick, a local official said.

Faleh al-Dulaimi, a spokesman for an association of local tribes in western Anbar province fighting al Qaeda militants, said police opened fire on the truck before it ran into the checkpoint in the town of Zangoura, north of Ramadi.

The explosion released the gas, Dulaimi said.

There has been a spate of chlorine truck bomb attacks in recent months blamed on al Qaeda militants, mainly in Anbar province. Ramadi is the capital of Anbar, stronghold of the Sunni Arab insurgency.

The effects of the gas have sickened hundreds of people.

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