Blasts rock Baghdad

Three loud explosions rocked the Iraqi capital tonight, including a suicide car bomb which was detonated near a police checkpoint, killing one policeman and wounding two, and a roadside bomb that injured four Iraqis, authorities said.

The other blast sent white smoke rising from the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the Iraqi government, embassies and US soldiers are located.

A spokesman for the US military said the cause of the explosion was being investigated.

No casualties were immediately reported.

The suicide bomb exploded in al-Zaitoun Street near a police checkpoint in a western part of the capital, said police Captain Talib Thamer.

Witnesses then reported hearing gunfire.

Thamer said one policeman died and two were seriously wounded, and that civilians probably would have been hurt if a night-time curfew had not already begun.

The explosion occurred in a neighbourhood where the party office of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is located.

In central Baghdad, the powerful roadside bomb exploded as an Iraqi police patrol truck was driving past, wounding three policemen and a civilian walking nearby, said police Lieutenant Othman Abdul Sattar.

The truck was thrown 33ft and severely damaged, and one of the wounded policemen was admitted to hospital in a serious condition, Sattar said.

Three other car bombs exploded in Baghdad during the day today, killing a total of four Iraqis and wounding 13, police said.