Thirteen people died in a shooting and a bombing in Baghdad on Thursday, including four Iraqi policemen, police said.

Gunmen opened fire on a minibus taking labourers to work in southwestern Baghdad, killing six.

In northern Baghdad, seven people were killed and four others wounded in a car bomb apparently targeting a police patrol. Of those killed, four were police and three civilians.

The latest violence came as Prime Minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki was expected soon to unveil a unity government in which the country's main ethnic and religious groups share power, ending five months of political paralysis.

The United States, which has 133,000 troops in Iraq suffering daily casualties three years after Saddam Hussein's overthrow, hopes a broad-based coalition will help end sectarian and guerrilla violence.