Suicide bomber dies in attack on police chief

A suicide bomber blew up explosives in his car outside the house of a police chief south of Baghdad today, killing himself and wounding seven others, officials said.

The attack was in the town of Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, near where another police chief was shot and killed a week ago and nine police recruits died when assailants sprayed their minibus with small arms fire.

Police Major Ali Jawad said guards outside the house of Hillah police chief Brigadier General Qeis Hamza opened fire at the car when they saw it speeding toward them, but failed to stop the attacker.

Four of the wounded were guards, the three others residents of nearby houses, Jawad said. Hamza and his family, who were home at the time of the blast, were unhurt. The explosion damaged the chief’s house and those of his neighbours.

East of Baghdad in Diala province late last night, a US soldier from the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division was wounded when a rocket propelled grenade was fired at an Army convoy.

Earlier, a bomb explosion near a US military convoy killed an American soldier northwest of the town of Fallujah.