A group linked to al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack in which five people were killed in Baghdad today.
The group, headed by al Qaeda figure Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement carried on an Islamist website.
"Your brothers in the Jama'at al-Tawhid and Jihad attacked the treacherous apostate the Deputy Interior Minister General Abdel Jabar in front of his home as he was preparing to go to his office," said the statement.
Statement from al-Qaeda-linked group, claiming reponsibility for the car bomb
Five people were killed when the car bomb exploded in front of the home of a senior Iraqi security official earlier.
The blast damaged the home of Mr Abdul-Jabbar Youssef al-Sheikhli, one of three deputy interior ministers and a member of the Shiite Muslim Dawa party.
A ministry official said Mr al-Sheikhli received head and chest injuries and was in stable condition at a nearby hospital.
It was the second fatal car-bombing in Baghdad this week.
On Monday, a suicide car bombing killed the president of the Iraqi Governing Council, Izzadine Saleem, and about six other people near the headquarters of the US-run coalition in the capital. Saleem was also a member of the Dawa party.
The latest blast occurred about 200 yards from the headquarters of the former Iraqi general security service.
Police and US military officers at the scene said the five dead included four Iraqi policemen and a woman neighbour who died in her home.
US Army Capt. Brian O'Malley said the blast occurred at about 8.05 a.m. was caused by a "vehicle-borne improvised explosive device."
It was unclear whether the bomb was detonated by a suicide attacker. Interior Minister Samir Shaker Mahmoud al-Sumeidi visited the site and was mobbed by distraught neighbours who screamed at him to "come and see what happened to our homes."
"God does not accept this," one man shouted. Al-Sumeidi described the attack as a "terrible crime" and promised to catch those responsible.