Car bomb kills 3 in Baghdad; Shi'ite assassinated
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-26 14:54

A suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle next to an Iraqi police patrol in Baghdad on Thursday, killing three people and wounding six, police said.

The attack happened shortly after dawn in Shola, a poor district of northwestern Baghdad. Two of those killed and four of those wounded were policemen.

Insurgents determined to destabilize Iraq's government and destroy its security forces target Iraqi police daily, using car bombs, explosives planted in the road and drive-by shootings.

Also on Thursday, a roadside bomb detonated as a private security convoy, escorted by U.S. military vehicles, was moving through eastern Baghdad.

Reuters Television pictures showed a large white sport utility vehicle that had been blown off the road, its front badly damaged, although the bulk of the vehicle remained in tact. It was not clear if anyone was wounded or killed.

In Qadissiya, in southern Baghdad, police said a member of the Shi'ite Muslim Dawa party, which is headed by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, was assassinated at his brother's home.

Police said the man, Fakri Abed al-Amari, had come to Baghdad from the southern city of Najaf to take up a position in the interior ministry. Dawa party officials in Baghdad had no immediate information on the attack.

There has been a series of tit-for-tat killings of Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims over the past month, since a new Shi'ite-led government was formed, leading some analysts to believe that sectarian violence, if left unchecked, could lead to civil war.