Four people were killed in two car bomb attacks in Baghdad on Thursday, one of which killed two Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint in the teeming Sadr City slum, security officials said. The bomb that exploded at Sadr City, bastion of the Mahdi Army Shiite militia, was hidden in a car being towed by a breakdown truck, a security official said.
When the tow-truck reached the checkpoint, a man on a motorcycle who had been following the vehicle used a mobile telephone to trigger the explosion and then sped off, the official said. A bystander was also killed in the blast. A car bomb exploded early morning near a police patrol in central Baghdad, killing one person and injuring nine, interior and defence ministry officials said.
The blast occurred near a stadium in the dangerous Zayuna neighbourhood. The officials said a civilian passer-by was killed while nine people, including two policemen, were injured.