Car bomb kills 10 Iraqis in Haditha

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Attackers detonated a car bomb near police and government buildings in the western city of Haditha on Thursday, killing 10 Iraqis. A decapitated body in an orange jumpsuit was found in the Tigris River in northern Iraq, the military said.

The body, discovered Wednesday night, had not been identified, but there were suspicions it could be that of a Bulgarian driver taken hostage recently by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist group and slain.

Elsewhere, gunmen fired at cars belonging to Iraq's foreign minister, killing one official and wounding two, an Iraqi national guard official said. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was not in the two-car convoy during the attack 65 miles south of the northern city of Kirkuk.

Police apparently thwarted an attack in the southern city of Karbala, chasing a car after receiving a tip it was filled with explosives. Two militants inside detonated their bomb, killing themselves but causing no other casualties.

An Islamic Web site carried a statement purportedly from al-Zarqawi's group claiming responsibility for Wednesday's assassination of a provincial Iraqi governor it called a "renegade traitor."

The violence was the latest in a series of deadly attacks by insurgents since the U.S.-led coalition handed sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government. Sixty-five people have been killed since the June 28 handover, including 14 in a July 6 car bombing in Khalis.

On Wednesday, a suicide car bombing in Baghdad killed at least 10 people near Iraqi government headquarters, and insurgents assassinated a provincial governor in an ambush.

The attack in Haditha, known as a stronghold of Saddam Hussein's ousted regime, hit a government complex housing police, civil defense and municipal offices. The blast wounded 40 people, Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdel-Rahman said.

Police and government officials have been targeted repeatedly by insurgents, who view them as puppets of U.S. forces.

Insurgents detonated a huge car bomb Wednesday at a checkpoint just outside the so-called Green Zone, former home to the U.S. coalition authority and current site of Iraq's interim government and the U.S. and British embassies. The blast killed 10 Iraqis, many waiting in line to apply for government jobs, the Health Ministry said. The U.S. military said 11 were killed.