Police: Car Bomb, Bus Blast Kill 6 in Iraq

BAGHDAD – Car bombs and planted explosives killed six people, mostly police, on Tuesday in different areas of Iraq as a low level insurgency continues to target the country's struggling security forces.

A car packed with explosives blew up at a gas station in the town of Saqlawiyah, 45 miles west of Baghdad, killing three policemen and one civilian, a local police officer said. He said five policemen and one civilian were wounded in the same blast.

In northern Baghdad, one civilian was killed and four were wounded when a bomb attached to a minibus exploded in Kazimiyah, a primarily Shiite suburb of the capital, said a police officer in the Iraqi capital.

Minutes later, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in western Baghdad wounded three civilians, a local policeman said.

In Hilla, just south of Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed one policeman and wounded two others, according to a local police spokesman.

In the far northern city of Mosul a roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol, wounding two soldiers and one civilian, said a police officer there.

Also in Mosul, the capital of Ninevah province, an Iraqi Army patrol in western part of the city shot dead an armed man, who was firing at the patrol late Monday.

The police officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to media.

As the violence continues around the country, Iraqi lawmakers remain in a bitter dispute over the new election law that would set out the legal structure for a critical nationwide vote in January.

The most contested issue is Kirkuk and the division of control over the northern city's vast oil resources between the Kurdish, Arab and Turkomen clans.

The lawmakers have also failed to agree on new voting guidelines that would require ballots to list individual candidates rather than just their party blocs.

The political gridlock comes as the U.S. seeks to stabilize Iraq as it draws down its combat forces and plans a full withdrawal by end of 2011. President Obama told Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during a meeting in Washington Tuesday that he plans to hold to U.S. withdrawal plans.

Obama also said he was watching closely for the Iraqi parliament to pass the election law — message al-Maliki heard in meetings a day earlier with Vice President Joe Biden.

In Iraq, the U.S. military said on Tuesday an American solider was killed and two others were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near their vehicle in the Ninevah province. The military said the soldier was killed on Monday.

The soldier's name was being withheld pending notification of next of kin, a military statement said, adding that the incident is under investigation.