Six people were killed and 36 wounded in two suicide car bombings in Iraq on Saturday, one targeting a government minister and purportedly claimed by the al Qaeda-linked militant Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi.
Justice Minister Malek Dohan, 83, emerged unscathed from the attack on his convoy but three of his guards, including a nephew, were killed along with two civilians.
Eight people were also wounded in the blast which hit Dohan's motorcade as it was taking him to work from his home in the west of the capital.
"My father is fine and in good health and he went straight to his office at the ministry after the attack," his son, Haidar Dohan al-Hassan, a 37-year-old businessman, told AFP by telephone.
A driver in a white Toyota approached the minister's convoy and blew himself up, killing three people in a Land Cruiser which was part of the convoy and two civilians in a BMW behind it, said interior ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdul Rahman.
Ambulances were seen rushing to the scene, where fires raged from the burning vehicles, as casualties were taken to the nearby Eskan Hospital.
Three policemen were wounded less than an hour later in a second blast close by.
Zarqawi's Tawhid wa al-Jihad group claimed the attack in a message posted on a website, although its authenticity could not be verified.
In another blow to Iraq's nascent security forces, a car bomb exploded outside a National Guard base in the restive town of Mahmudiya, 30 kilometres south of Baghdad.
An Iraqi civilian was killed and 25 people wounded, hospital and interior ministry source said.
"An Oldsmobile vehicle sped towards the entrance of the building and when its driver failed to stop as instructed, he was fired on and the car exploded about 25 metres from the entrance," said guardsman Adel Taha.
The interior ministry confirmed the attack was a suicide bombing.
While, a US soldier was killed and another wounded when their convoy was targeted in a roadside bomb blast on Saturday morning near the northern Iraqi City of Beiji, the US military said.
The bomb hit the soldiers' vehicle at about 7:00 am (0300 GMT), it said.
"The injured soldier has been evacuated to a military medical facility," it added in a statement.
Meanwhile, a cleric belonging to the Iraqi Islamic Party was gunned down by unidentified assailants in Baghdad on Saturday, a party official said.
The party's spokesperson had no further details about the attack, but said Sheikh Abdul Samad Ismail al-Adhami may have been targeted because he is the brother of Abdul Wahab al-Adhami, a prominent cleric and party member known for his opposition to the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein.
"I cannot blame anyone but it might be that some elements loyal to the previous regime hold a grudge against us because we occupy the offices of the Baath party," said Amar Wajih Zein-Alabideen.
The party's headquarters were hit with a rocket-propelled grenade on July 2 that killed a guard, minutes after Hajem al-Hassani, the party's deputy chief, left the building.
Hassani is industry minister in the caretaker government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
The party's chief Muhsin Abdul Hamid was a member of the US-appointed Governing Council, dissolved after the handover of sovereignty in early June.