12 Iraqis killed in car bombs in Baghdad, Mosul

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A car bomb exploded Tuesday near the Ministry of Education in a busy Baghdad commercial area, killing at least eight people and wounding 29 others, officials said. In the north, another car bomb killed at least four people in the city of Mosul.

Meanwhile, kidnappers released two Iraqi guards who were abducted along with an American, a Nepalese, a Filipino and an Iraqi from the Baghdad compound of a Saudi company on Monday, police and a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.

In Tuesday's bombing, a car plowed into concrete blast walls and protective barriers surrounding the Education Ministry and exploded in Baghdad's northern Azamiyah district.

Al-Nu'man Hospital officials said there were six people killed, including one woman. Ten others were wounded, including a two-year old girl

Officials at a second hospital, Baghdad Medical City Hospital, reported two more deaths and 19 injured. Dr. Ra'ed Mubarak said he was unsure whether some of the wounded were transferred from other hospitals.

In Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, a car bomb targeting a military convoy carrying an Iraqi general exploded, killing four civilians and wounding at least seven soldiers, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

Iraqi police said the attack was an assassination attempt on Gen. Rashid Feleih, commander of a special task force in the Iraqi army. He was unhurt in the blast, police said.

Feleih had arrived in the city several days ago to assist Iraqi police and was apparently on his way to a press conference to talk about the role of the task force, according to police and media reports.

The blasts came a day after a dramatic kidnapping in the capital — the latest in the wave of abductions of foreigners.

Gunmen stormed the compound of a Saudi company in the upscale Mansour district, battling with guards in a fight that killed one attacker and one guard. The gunmen then made off with six hostages — an American, a Filipino, a Nepalese and three Iraqis.

Two of the Iraqis — guards from the compound — were left blindfolded and handcuffed in Baghdad's Hay al-Amil area late Monday, said a police officer involved with the investigation on condition of anonymity.

The men had been beaten, and the kidnappers had told them, "Don't work with them (foreigners) again or else we'll kill you," according to the officer. He said he believed the two were freed because they were from the Fallujah area.