'Safe house' bombed in bid to kill terror leader

US jets pounded a suspected safe house of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Fallujah today, the latest in a series of strikes against the man suspected of masterminding deadly attacks and beheadings in Iraq.

The missile strike, which a doctor in the insurgent-controlled city said killed four people, came shortly before former dictator Saddam Hussein was to appear in an Iraqi court.

A roadside bomb detonated near a central Baghdad hospital, injuring a senior Iraqi Finance Ministry official and killing two of his guards, police and hospital officials said.

Ehsan Karim, the head of the ministry’s audit board, suffered slight injuries in the bombing, said Colonel Adnan Hussein, head of the Interior Ministry’s information office.

Karim’s guard and driver were killed in the explosion near Yarmouk Hospital. Four bystanders were also injured.