At least five killed in Baghdad blast

Two bombs struck Shiite targets in Baghdad today, killing a total of five people and wounding more than 10, police said.

The first blast occurred when a parked car bomb struck about 9am local time near the Finance Ministry, which is run by Bayan Jabr, a Shiite and former interior minister. One civilian was killed and four other people were wounded, including a ministry guard.

A bomb planted under a car exploded about 45 minutes later in the predominantly Shiite commercial district of Karradah in central Baghdad, killing four people, including a woman and a seven-year-old boy, and wounding seven other people, police said.

The blast collapsed part of the wall of a brick building, leaving a ground floor apartment exposed with a mass of rubble and mangled cars in the alley.

In other violence, police pulled a bullet-riddled body that showed signs of torture from the Tigris River in Suwayrah, 25 miles south of Baghdad.

Police also said gunmen shot to death an Iraqi contractor in the predominantly Shiite town of Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad.

A roadside bomb struck a police patrol in the northern city of Mosul, killing one policemen and wounding two, according to police.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol struck the predominantly Sunni neighbourhood of Azamiyah, wounding a child.

Police also said six people waiting to collect welfare benefits were wounded when a bomb left in a sack exploded at a social welfare department in eastern Baghdad.