Two car bombs exploded in Baghdad this morning, one targeting a senior Interior Ministry official and the other exploding in a busy shopping district, killing at least six people.
The first bomb exploded in the Huriya district of northwest Baghdad as a small convoy of vehicles carrying Major General Fuleih Rasheed, the commander of a police commando unit linked to the Interior Ministry, was passing.
No one was killed in the attack, but Rasheed and three of his bodyguards were wounded, police said. None of the injuries were believed to be life-threatening.
The second car bomb exploded in the Karrada district, a busy neighbourhood in the south of the capital. It detonated outside an electrical goods store on a major shopping street, damaging an apartment building and half a dozen cars.
Six civilians were killed and seven wounded by the explosion, which had targeted a police patrol in the area, said police Lt. Col. Salman Abdul Karim Al-Fartosi. No police were hurt, he said
Ambulances were at the scene helping the injured. Firefighters were still putting out the flames from the blast. US and Iraqi forces blocked off the area.
There has been a furious onslaught of car bombings in Baghdad and around the country in the past five days, since Iraq formed its first democratically elected government in 50 years.
Most of the bombs have been aimed at Iraqi security forces, but they have also killed scores of civilians, including children. Iraqi officials estimate that the attacks have killed 100 people and wounded more than 150.
A bombing on Sunday hit a funeral for a Kurdish official in the northern town of Tal Afar, killing at least 30 people and wounding around 50, the U.S. military and Iraqi officials said.