IRAQ: Insurgents killed eight people in Iraq yesterday including a senior interior ministry official, while two Jordanian drivers were the latest foreigners to be seized in a spiralling hostage crisis.
The surge in attacks, including two car bombings, marked a fresh security challenge to the interim government ahead of a major political gathering expected this week.
The US military said a suicide car bomb exploded outside an American base near the northern city of Mosul, killing an Iraqi woman, her child and an Iraqi guard.
Three US soldiers and two Iraqi security staff were wounded. The military said the car was packed with mortar shells, but these did not detonate, lessening the impact.
In Baghdad, gunmen shot Mr Mussab al-Awadi, a top official in charge of tribal affairs, as he left his house, an Interior Ministry source said. Two bodyguards were also killed.
Gunmen also opened fire on five women who work as cleaners for US firm Bechtel in the southern city of Basra, killing two and wounding two others, one survivor said.
The women were waiting for a bus to take them to work when they were attacked. "I pretended to be dead so they didn't shoot me. I was covered in the blood of my friends," said Ms Montaha Khalil, who was unhurt.
Despite the violence, Iraq has said it will push ahead later this week with a national conference aiming to give Iraqis a real say in how their country is run.