An empty minibus loaded with explosives that detonated in east Baghdad today killed three people and injured 13, police said.
Police said the minibus exploded near the al-Kindi hospital; the driver of the bus abandoned it on the street and ran, they said. All three killed were Iraqi civilians, and the injured included five police officers, a spokesman said.
Other violence in and around Baghdad killed another six people and injured 21.
In Baghdad, police said clashes between unidentified gunmen, police and the Iraqi army led to the deaths of two police officers and the injury of another nine.
A police sergeant was reportedly killed by a US patrol, a police spokesman said.
In Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed an Iraqi woman and injured five other people.
Another two people were killed in an early morning drive-by shooting in Baghdad's southern Dora district.
Police also reported that a businessman was kidnapped along with his 23 year-old son in Baghdad's upscale Mansour district. No other details were available.