Four foreign men die in Baghdad explosion

Four foreign men were killed today when their bullet-proof 4X4 blew up near an entrance to US led coalition headquarters in Baghdad.

The explosion ripped the roof off the car, said an Iraqi policeman who saw the blast.

American soldiers tried to pull the men from the shattered car, and quickly sealed off the area, said witness Kamel Raji.

The blast occurred about 50 yards from the Assassins Gate, one of the main entrances to the Green Zone, which houses the coalition headquarters.

Policeman Mohammed Naem, who saw the car explode, said the vehicle was a bullet-proof Toyota Land Cruiser that was on its way to the convention centre in the Green Zone.

The bomb attack was the latest in a series of deadly assaults in the Iraqi capital.

On Saturday, a suicide car bomber in Baghdad killed four people and slightly wounded a deputy interior minister in Baghdad.

On May 17, the president of the Iraqi Governing Council, Izzadine Saleem, was killed along with at least six other people near the coalition headquarters.

US army Colonel John Murray said they were trying to identify the nationalities of the victims. He confirmed four deaths.

“We are still try to determine exactly what happened,” Murray said. “We don’t think it was a suicide bomber. We are still talking to eyewitnesses.”

About an hour later, at least two explosions were heard in central Baghdad, and smoke rose from the vicinity of the Green Zone, which houses the coalition headquarters.