BAGHDAD, -- An Iraqi civilian was killed and three others wounded in a car bomb explosion in a town in south of Baghdad on August, an Interior Ministry source said.

"A car bomb rigged with explosives detonated in the afternoon on the main road on Mahmoudiyah town, 30 km south of Baghdad, killing a civilian and wounding three others," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Separately, clashes erupted in Baghdad's northern district of Kadhumiyah between Iraqi soldiers and Mahdi militants loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the source said, without providing details about casualties.

Meanwhile, a Sadr office source said that Sheikh Hazim al-Araji, head of Sadr office in Kadhumiyah, escaped an assassination attempt after gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniform attacked him while he left his office close to the Shiite sacred shrine of Imam al- Kadhum.

Five of Araji's office were wounded in the attack after Araji's bodyguards traded fire with the attackers, he said.