BAQUBA, Iraq - Two car bombs exploded Wednesday morning in Baghdad and Baquba, killing six people and wounding 24, as mortars exploded in the citadel-like enclave where the first session of Iraq's historic parliament unfolded.
A Katyusha rocket set fire to a home in Baghdad's eastern Karrada disrict, but there were no casualties.
In the rebel bastion of Baquba, a suicide car bomb blew up at an Iraqi national guard checkpoint, killing five soldiers and wounding 10 troops, plus two civilians, police said.
"Five Iraqi soldiers were killed and 10 others were wounded, as well as two civilians, in a suicide car bombing at an Iraqi army checkpoint five kilometers (three miles) northwest of Baquba," a police spokesman said.
Earlier, hospital officials in Baquba said two people had died in the blast.
One of the wounded, Abdel Karim Jassem, said from his hospital bed that he heard a loud explosion just after 9:00 am (0600 GMT).
"I was in a car behind four vehicles that were headed towards the checkpoint when the explosion occurred," he said. Doctors said his life was not in danger.
The explosion happened in the northeastern Mafraq district, where attacks on the police and army are common.
Meanwhile, a car bomb targeting a US military convoy blew up in the southern Baghdad district of Dura, killing one civilian and wounding a dozen others, security sources said.
And a Katyusha rocket struck a two-floor house in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Karrada at 1:30 pm (1030 GMT), setting the building on fire and destroying two cars, but there were no casualties, a police captain said.
The owner, Mohammed Khor, was out of town, he added.
As Iraq's milestone 90-minute parliament session began, a pair of mortars or rockets exploded in the sealed off enclave of US and Iraqi institutions, where the ceremony was being held.
But there were no casualties in the attack, the military said.
03/16/2005 13:08 GMT