At least eight people were killed when a car bomb exploded near the Ministry of Education in a busy commercial area of northern Baghdad today.

Gunmen stormed the compound of a Saudi company in a fashionable Baghdad neighbourhood, seizing an American, a Nepalese and four Iraqis after a gun battle in which a guard and one of the attackers were killed.

Gunmen stormed the compound of a Saudi company in Baghdad today and seized an American, a Nepalese and four Iraqi guards after a gunbattle in which two people were killed.