Car bomb blast kills eight in Baghdad

A CAR bomb exploded yesterday near the Ministry of Education in a busy Baghdad commercial area, killing at least eight people and wounding 29 others, officials said.

In the north, another car bomb killed at least four people in Mosul.

Meanwhile, kidnappers released two Iraqi guards who were abducted along with an American, a Nepalese, a Filipino and an Iraqi from the Baghdad compound of a Saudi company on Monday.

In yesterday's bombing, a car laden with explosives ploughed into concrete blast walls and protective barriers surrounding the Education Ministry and exploded in Baghdad's northern Azamiyah district.

Al-Nu'man Hospital officials said six people died, including one woman. Ten others were wounded, including a girl aged two.

Officials at a second hospital, Baghdad Medical City Hospital, reported two more deaths and 19 injured. Dr Ra'ed Mubarak said he was unsure whether some of the wounded were transferred from other hospitals.

In Mosul, 225 miles north-west of Baghdad, a car bomb targeting a military convoy carrying an Iraqi general blew up, killing four civilians and wounding at least seven soldiers. Iraqi police said the attack was an assassination attempt on General Rashid Feleih, commander of a special task force in the Iraqi army. He was unhurt.

The blasts came a day after a dramatic kidnapping in the capital.

Gunmen stormed the compound of a Saudi company in the upscale Mansour district, battling with guards in a fight that killed one attacker and one guard. The gunmen then made off with six hostages an American, a Filipino, a Nepalese and three Iraqis.

Two of the Iraqis guards from the compound were left blindfolded and handcuffed in Baghdad's Hay al-Amil area late on Monday, said a police officer.

The men had been beaten, and the kidnappers had told them, "Don't work with them (foreigners) again or else we'll kill you," according to the officer.

The kidnapped Filipino is believed to be an accountant. Sources said Filipino diplomats in Baghdad were trying to verify reports that initially identified the man as Roberto Torrongoy.

The offices where the hostages were abducted is about 450 metres from the home of two Americans and a Briton kidnapped by militants in September. All three were later killed.

The captives are believed to work for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Company, or Satco, which supplies food to the Iraqi army and others.

Twelve Americans have been kidnapped or are missing in Iraq. At least three of them have been killed all beheaded in abductions claimed by an al-Qaida- linked group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

More than 160 foreigners have been abducted this year by militants with political demands or by criminals seeking ransom. At least 33 captives have been killed.

The abduction came two days after authorities found the decapitated body of another hostage, 24-year-old Japanese backpacker Shosei Koda.

Al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq group said it had kidnapped Mr Koda and demanded a withdrawal of Japanese troops from Iraq.

Al-Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for Mr Koda's beheading and put a video on an Islamist website of his death.

The al-Qaida-affiliated group said the Japanese government had offered "millions of dollars" in ransom for Mr Koda's safe return.

"The world should know, from east to west, north to south that al-Qaida is firm on its jihad, God willing, in spite of the Japanese government offering a ransom of millions of dollars," the statement said. US and Iraqi forces are gearing up for a major offensive against Fallujah, the strongest bastion of Sunni insurgents, about 40 miles west of Baghdad.

Yesterday, the US military reported overnight airstrikes in Fallujah that destroyed an enemy site.

Hospital officials said one person was killed.