Four killed in Baghdad bomb blasts

A series of explosions today killed at least four people – including two young boys – and injured five in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

A bomb hidden under a parked car near the University of Technology exploded as police from the interior minister’s protection force were driving through central Baghdad in two vehicles, said police Maj. Abbas Mohammed Salman.

The minister was not in the convoy, he said.

Earlier, Salman identified the target as a police patrol.

The dead were both policemen and one officer was among the injured, he said.

Another bomb missed an American convoy on the northern outskirts of Baghdad and killed two Iraqi boys who were selling petrol by the side of the road, police Capt. Qassim Hussein said.

He estimated their age at between 10 and 11.

Several other explosions caused no casualties, police said.