Car Bomb Hits Iraqi Official’s Convoy

A car bomb struck a convoy carrying Malik Dohan Hassan, Iraq’s new minister of justice, and at least four people were killed today, witnesses and hospital officials said.

Initial reports indicated that the justice minister, who would have been leaving his house for the government offices on the first day of the Iraqi workweek, escaped from the explosion, which occurred just before 9 a.m.

Reports of the casualties varied, but several of the minister’s bodyguards were said to have been killed.

Officials said at least four people had been killed.

South of Baghdad, a car bombing near an Iraqi National Guard post killed at least one person around 7:45 a.m. today.

At the scene of the Baghdad attack, near a highway bridge, two sport utility vehicles were destroyed, while shrapnel had heavily damaged a third.

U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police swarmed the area, and ambulances could be seen driving away.

In addition to the convoy, a number of civilian vehicles around the site were heavily damaged.

Hamid Mohammed, 19, who lives near the blast site in the Adil district of southwestern Baghdad, said he was inside when he heard the blast.

He ran out and “we started to collect the pieces of bodies,” he said. “There were many.”

A doctor at the nearby Yarmouk Hospital, who gave his name only as Dr. Firaz, said seven people were taken to the hospital after the explosion.

Mohammed Abdul Amee, who was slightly injured in the bombing, said five cars were passing by and one of them exploded.

Another man, Hussein Najib, said he was driving by when the explosion occurred.

“The next thing I remember was someone pulling me from my car,” he said.

Pools of blood covered the street, and the lights on one of the destroyed SUVs were still flashing after the explosion.

Iraqi police fired guns into the air to disperse a large crowd of bystanders.

Meanwhile, in the car bombing in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, initial reports said one Iraqi was killed and at least 22 injured.

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Raheem Salman of The Times’ Baghdad Bureau contributed to this report.